Trying to Keep Up
by Jenniethia
Summary: "Do it," I Mutter lowly in a short breath. He looks at me confused, which soon turns into one of sincerity. "No..." He shakes his head. "Do it Link," I say it again firmer this time, it nearly startles him. I see tears forming in his eyes. "Or I'l do it myself." I tell him. His grip becomes firm but I shove out of him and walk toward the edge.
1. Chapter 1

"Arrrhgh!" Another blow directs toward my shoulder with humongous impact and I slide back against the linear platform. Palutena does not waste another second and uses her wings to bat away at my body sending me flying backwards off the edge of Hyrule Temple.

"Hugh," I groan and as a new bruise begins to formulate across my thigh, and fall down below beneath the cracks to the last center platform and immediately stand, regaining my posture.

 _I can't let her win,_ I remind myself. She has one more life left and I have three, so I obviously have the upper hand. Although my damage is excessively high, I can't renew myself without thoroughly finishing her off. She is at 126% damage, 14% more of what I have on myself.

I hear her taunting me from above. My eyebrows narrow and a sly smirk eases its way onto my lips.

Without being seen I jump onto the next platform of tree bark and smoothly slide up the edge of the cliff. She still doesn't see me.

"S-a-am? Where are you?" She taunts in a singsong tone. I can almost taste the confidence she believes she's letting on. This makes it psychologically simpler to take her down: The Element of Surprise.

I hoist myself above the cliff seeing her facing the opposite direction where she presumes I still lay. Little does she know I stand right behind her, my Jet Boot charging up to it's fullest capacity...

"Sam..." I hear her voice become a little worried, confused. "Samus..?" She slowly moves to look over the edge of the cliff.

At this point my boot has already charged and I raise my foot hesitantly above her shoulders.

Her body stiffens as she stands up straight. "Fuck." She sighs admitting her defeat before the untimely fate is placed on her.

I grin and finally bring my foot heavily against her, sending her flying into the abyss. Her scream echoes away...

"GAME!" Time slows down and the both of us are teleport back to the waiting location for our next match. I exit the stage through the sliding doors and enter my dressing room. I plop down onto my dressing room seat, physically exhausted from the previous match. I kick off my boots, remove my ponytail and unzip my suit, to reveal my undergarments. I grab a nearby towel and remove the sweat and blood stains from my arm and face. I change into my Gameplay bathing suit to prepare for my next match. Suddenly, I hear a knock on my door.

"It's open," I call out, tousling my hair from side to side and from behind the door Palutena emerges with a great smile on her face. I return with an even wider grin and even a little giggle. "How did that feel today, huh? Finally got a taste of your own medicine."

"Ah... I was expecting it," She winks at me. "It has been a while since someone's knocked me out of the ringer. I was kind of getting bored with it so you know... I kind of wasn't at my fullest-"

I laugh out loud. "Stop right there! Don't you ever try to make me believe that you 'went easy' on me. That was a good match, you just happened to be the loser this time around."

She also chuckles. "I see... Its a pity also I cant travel with you to the Grand Games Tournament. We would've done great together."

"I know..." My eyes drift away from hers to my dresser table. My eyes slowly graze over my Fairy Necklace that I kept with me since the beginning of the tournament. This was the very first match I've won without it. Getting over this was beginning to become easier.

Palutena follows my gaze to the table. Her eyes widen in surprise. "You didn't wear it today, did you?"

I close my eyes and shake my head. "Don't worry about it, it's... nothing, I just.. forgot it..."

Palutena's gazes switches from one taken aback to one of care and concern. "I'm gonna leave you to yourself for a little while, is that alright?" She steps forward and leans in to meet my eyes. "I'll always be here to talk about things, okay Sam?"

I give her a small smile. "Thanks Tina. I really appreciate it." She pats my knee and gets up and exists the room giving me a big smile. "Good Luck on your next one."

"Thanks," I mutter as she silently closes the door to my dressing room. I let out a heavy sigh and slump further in my chair. My eye catches the necklace once more and I slowly reach to pick it up.

The little blue fairy that hangs from the gold chain is small and delicate; very noticeable but can be easily hidden within the depths underneath my suits. Little sapphires surround the wings of the fairy and they shine luminously underneath the dim lighting of the dressing room. I always used to think that the necklace held some sort of special magic inside, that there was more to it that a pretty little blue jewel. As of right now, I don't think I'll ever get to discover and see whether there truly is.

We left on bad terms... It was always complicated between us. He had a whole town to save, a whole section of universal time to restore back to its original place, to remove evil... While I was on different planets to I guess, do the same.

Long distance relationships suck.

That is until I got relocated to The Smash Bros. Institution for battling others with similar situations as mine. We all have our stories to tell and it as a test of endurance and competitiveness. Little did I know, he was also relocated to the same institution as I.

We tried again and... it was golden. The timing was perfect but not to perfect to where we were capable of shattering at any second. We got in little tiny arguments but would release the out on the stage, so it would be better for the both of us... So when we came back we had all the energy and excitement to have fun... by ourselves.

Then she came, without warning her wave also got relocated and things changed dramatically. He wasn't the same man I always knew... and loved.

He started ignoring me, leaving me hanging at our hangouts, neglecting me in public, made a whole 180 and left me wondering where I went wrong. We just stopped seeing each other.

But that was 9 months ago, I'm just now starting to recover too.

The Fairy Necklace, the one he gave me on the last birthday celebration we spent together. I always wore it everyday after that. Never not once took it off.

Today was a different day. I'm slowly beginning to cope with the changes... at least for now. I hesitantly clasp the necklace around my neck and tie my hair back up. Let's hope nothing un-ordinary pops up out of nowhere.

A rapid knock on the door interrupts me from my thoughts. Without waiting for me to answer, the person pushes through the door; It's Wii Fit Trainer.

"Hey Zero Suit, are you ready to see who you're up against next?" She asks me. She pulls in her first aid kit behind her and sets it inside my dressing room in a free space and begins immediately treating my wounds.

Wii Fit doesn't fight anymore. Instead she trains and is basically a nurse for the players that are planning on advancing to the Grand Games Tourney. I flick on the flat screen television to the randomizing players listed on the screen. My identification picture is presented to the side of the randomizing cast of players. I watch in anticipation and it seems as though this selection is taking longer than usual. Even Wii Fit looks up to see what the deal is.

"Hm...They're taking quite longer than usual it seems," Wii Fit mutters. "I'm guessing its because the lists are getting smaller."

"... I'm guessing as well," My eyebrows narrow at the timing for this next match and it's giving me a weird feeling inside.

"LINK!" The Game-show Host's voice booms through my dressing room, that immediately becomes eerie and disturbing. My eyes widen and my mouth forms a small 'O'.

 _Well, would you look at that._

"Oooh, A tough one," Wii Fit chuckles to herself, returning back to my wounds. "One of the original 12 that were with you."

I sit still remaining quiet and speechless.

"Samus?" Wii Fit looks up at me and I instantly shake my head trying to wish away the envelope of emotions that just rose to the surface once again.

"I'm fine, just thinking of tactics to take him down..." My voice drifts away. I can already smell the defeat before I even enter the waiting room.

"Alright, I'm all finished here," She packs her things up and opens the door to leave without hesitating a second. "I'll give you a little more time to yourself to get ready. Good luck, see you after the round."

When the door shuts, I immediately jump up and put on my boots. I take one last look at myself in the mirror; My skin that was once a perfect shade of alabaster is now almost equivalent to a milky caramel shade. My once platinum blonde hair is now a dull honey blonde, finally those crazy childish bangs are gone so my hair has grown out evenly, and my big blue eyes show nothing but hurt and anxiety. But there in the center of my chest is the necklace. Not finding any time to thoroughly remove it, I place it inside my bra and tighten my ponytail. The director comes by my door and sends a chilling command to be out in one minute. Lets pray everything goes well.

In the waiting room I anxiously rub my boots against one another. Usually before the round, I know whether I'm going to win or lose, not to be cocky or anything, but I like to weigh what I'm going up against before the round to prepare myself for the energy I'll be needing. Another tactic I use pre-round to win. To analyze strengths and weaknesses, outweigh the difficulty of the stage to the level of difficulty of my opponent.

However, this next round, I have nothing. I don't know what to expect.

I've not seen him fight in 9 months... I don't even fully remember how he looks like whether he looks the exact same or different... God, why me? Why _him_?

Suddenly as if on cue, I see the metal doors from his end of the room open and I see him.

I am thrown completely off guard... He looks completely different. Has he gotten taller or is it just me? His shoulders are broader, and he's gain a lot of muscle... His arms, so big... Oh how I wish for those same arms to tickle me around my waist again. His hair is also a darker, deeper shade of blonde, He's almost brunette now, his skin looks bronzed and sun-kissed and his eyes are bright, icy and hold a lot of confinement. Somewhere deep in those blue eyes of his, I see his need for liberation and freedom... but from what? His gaze meets mine for only a split second and It sends shivers down my back. My heart immediately begins to beat faster. His eyes graze over me in a hastily manner and it almost feels overbearing. I almost regret wearing the Bathing suit for this match, I didn't know it was going to be much of a distraction. My cheeks become hot and I see him lose that strong, tough composure he usually puts on. I see his vulnerability.

The room is electrified but he doesn't take his eyes off me. If I could only see what is running through his mind right now, what he wishes to say but knows he couldn't. His chest rises and falls heavily as though he just came back from a race. I feel a tingling in a familiar spot and bite my lip instinctively. Even from a distance I see his pupils dilate and his jaw clench as he takes a big gulp. Honestly, what is going on?

"Liiink!" A squeaky high pitched voice interrupts- interrupts what?

Both of our gazes travel toward the petite short brown-haired princess skipping in and stands right in front of him without forgetting to give me a passing territorial gaze. I turn away to avoid her seeing my confidence disintegrate. Never will she see that.

I hold up a reputation for being extremely self-assured around the institution so I guess you can say I'm known to be the one of respect and self-confidence. Except all of that lays down on the fence for just one person...

"Good luck baby," I hear the Princess coo at her mate, a sloppy sound following sharply behind. I cringe slightly.

"Take her down, alright?" She giggles and slowly releases her grip from behind his neck. I stand facing forward looking ahead at the stage garage door in front of me that is yet to be selected. I feel a presence inching towards me and I turn to my right and see the Princess approaching me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see his lingering stare but dare not meet it, not in front of the Princess.

"Hello Zero Suit," She chirps, distaste spits out as well.

I smile politely and wave. She continues on her way without looking at me once more. I take a deep breath as the lights dim and our platform raise higher to the top, preparing to choose our stage.

I look over once at him and his body immediately stiffens, you wouldn't notice it but I do. He doesn't turn my way or even glance in my direction. Just as quickly as the feeling of hope came, it disappeared just the same. Back to strangers.

"SURVIVAL!" I hear the game-host's voice echo through the room. I choose a stage that is simple, not too complex, so there's no where to hide, nor are there any illusions covering the stage making it difficult to see my opponent. Something original, and my personal favorite...

Link chooses his stage without hesitating and it makes me wonder what he has in store for the match. Immediately as he presses the transparent screen, the stage appears and we both simultaneously turn towards each other in surprise: Final Destination.

The cheers begin and its time to fight.

"3...2...1.. GO!"

This round is different, instead of 8 lives, we have 3. The stakes are higher and the friction increases as we both come to the same realization: The winner gets to stand as a player in the Grand Games Tournament. This is the Final round, therefore, _everyone_ is watching.

As I land onto the platform from my spaceship, and my feet touch the ground, he doesn't hesitate. He rushes toward me with exceeding speed and aims straight for my head with his sword catching me a little off guard. I quickly combat his attack with a blow to the face with my ray gun to buy time.

I quickly jump above his head to plan a motif of attack and he follows closely behind me, foot first. I land on the ground with a roll, and as soon as he is just about to take a step on the ground as well, I immediately shoot upward in a combo attack, my fist to his face, a hard kick following afterward.

He falls to the ground in a heap and my heart sinks just a little.

 _Keep focusing_ , I remind myself.

Without hesitating I aim for him again with my gun and whip him around while shooting electricity through his body. He quickly recovers but his damage reaches its peak at 50% already. He falls back to the ground but uses his wind to push me back a little. I gain 5+ damage, now making 25%. I still have the upper hand.

I jump up and he follows again attacking me with a circular sword move that sends me flying upward into the air. I fly uncontrollably and quickly regain my power. I shoot downward at him towards the ground but he pushes his sword up my stomach giving me an extra 25+ damage. I go back flying into the air.

Honestly, I'm taken by surprise, he really has been working a lot since the last time we've fought like this. Although his moves are the same, he's faster on his feet and his moves come with more forceful impact. Trying desperately hard to not let my emotions get the best of me, I grab onto the edge of the platform and hop back onto the top. He's charging at me.

I jump around his sword attack and give him a surprise blow from behind. He flies off the edge but quickly comes back, I'm assuming, wanting more.

So I taunt him.

I get on my knees, still keeping his gaze and draw my pointer finger out in a beckoning motion, slowly crawling backwards away from him. His gaze immediately shifts from one of determination to uneasiness and trepidation. I wink, giving him a suggestive smirk. His cheeks redden dramatically and he instinctively takes a step forward. I use this opportunity to lunge directly at him with my boots to his chest and he is sent flying off into the abyss.

-1 life. I stand up immediately ready to take on his renewed strength.

Unexpectedly, his boot clamps down on my back and I fall forward, taken off guard. Without receiving enough time to readjust he comes again with his sword jabbing at my sides. I continuously press on more damage and it registers: He's angry.

I smile inwardly. He didn't like when I made him feel vulnerable.

He attacks again this time around lifting me up into the air with his sword and completes a combo sending me flying into the air, causing me to lose a life only at 83% damage.

 _Bullshit._

The next two minutes are just the both of us avoiding physical contact. We're not even really fighting anymore and our damage has stayed the same for a good 45 seconds. Neither of us are happy with the way things turned out. I can even feel myself beginning to lose focus. This is worse than him not even speaking to me. We're not even coming within close range to fight each other.

5 minutes in and we're both at our last lives. I can taste blood from where he cut me with his sword on my cheek and his nose and lips are bruised from the foot-to-face contact and his hair singed from the electricity shots.

There's always one thing I felt was odd about receiving damage while fighting. Although when you lose a life and your damage reduces to 0% when you re-spawn, the previous bruises and battle wounds still remain.

For a moment I stare at him and wonder how bad he really wants this, whether this is even worth the fight. For us to be physically at pain and on another note myself being emotionally distraught. _How does this all seem to him_ , I wonder. How much can he really take? How far is he willing to go?

Here we are, both at 0% damage, with one more life to spare.

I've met my match. It was him all along.

So I stood there-

-He charges toward me with, passion, rage, desire-

 _-The whole time._

-Frustration and lies anchor him down, but he rises up again, full of wrath...

Vengeance.

I receive a strong blow from his sword and I fly backwards. But yet I stand up, without doing anything.

He comes again, harder this time, to my chest hits a kick weighing down on my body. I fall to the ground and yet I stand back up without lifting a finger.

Another blow to my leg,

one to my arm,

sends me flying in the air,

another one to my back,

But I let it happen.

 _This is the most communication we've had in 9 months._

my neck,

my shoulder,

my heart...

He continues, getting more aggressive with each hit, not realizing that I wasn't even fighting back anymore. He's too driven by anger... but this time it's not from me.

I can see it in his eyes when he hits me he doesn't even make eye contact, he attacks where he sees there's no pressure. He's unhappy, He's stressed, He's confused, he's-

Another blow to my chin sends me flying back onto my back, my damage now at 109%.

 _How bad does he really want it?_

 _He's..._

He uses his hookshot and pulls me up underneath him for attack.. For the first time in ages I meet his gaze up close. He is taken aback immediately, and almost looks clueless... like his mind went blank.

Then it hits him. I'm not fighting back anymore.

He stares at me, and through his icy blue eyes, I see his frustration, also mixed with amatory and titillation and I'm so close to him I can almost feel it. Sweat drops from his chin onto my cheek. His breathing pattern intensifies and I can feel his weight slowly pressing against me. I want so bad to push myself against him but I hold back in fear of rejection.

 _He's lonely._

His gaze unknowingly travels down from my eyes to my lips and I can't help softly bite my lower lip out of nervous habit. I feel a lecherous wave overtake the both of us and I take a hasty breath in. But he doesn't stop there, his gaze continues lower...

The necklace.

Sitting on top of my collarbone in it's awe-inspiring beauty. The shimmer from the small sapphires on its wings shine magnificently, reflecting onto his eyes making them appear more captivating than ever.

His eyes widen in shock, maybe at the fact that I still wear it, or that I even still have it. His eyes then trace back up to mine. My head is pounding and the familiar taste of metal finds its way back onto my tongue.

His eyes dart back to my lips seeing the blood pool out. His expression becomes one of alarm.

"Do it," I Mutter lowly in a short breath.

He looks at me confused, which soon turns into one of sincerity. "No..." He shakes his head.

"Do it Link," I say it again firmer this time, it nearly startles him.

I see tears forming in his eyes.

"Or I'l do it myself." I tell him.

His grip becomes firm but I shove out of it and walk toward the edge.

"Sam, no!" I hear his shout echo but its already too late.

My body flies over the edge of the platform falling into a pit of abyss...

"GAME!"

All fades to black.


	2. Chapter 2

I leave the stage in a hurry immediately making a beeline for my room. I hear him call out my name desperately and his voice gets closer. I smell his familiar scent.

"Sam, wait..." He reaches out, but I don't stop moving.

I reach my door and open it quickly but stop instantly taken by surprise.

"SURPRISE!" Palutena, Ike, Lucina, Shulk, Pit, Captain Falcon, Sheik and Pikachu jump up excitingly and balloons and streamers are everywhere. "Great Job Samus!"

I release a sigh, along with a chuckle and return their excitement with a smile. "Thanks guys, you all are the best." I squat lower and pat my thighs. Pikachu comes racing onto me with excitement and anticipation. I grab him and hug him dearly while caressing his ears. "Hey boy! How are you?"

"We know you didn't win but we still thought it'd be even better if we'd surprise you for all the hard work you've done," Captain explains with a brilliant smile.

"Honestly, you guys shouldn't have..." I give them a small smile and feel myself becoming emotional.

"Yeah, you got to tell me what happened back there," Lucina whispers to me and winks.

I roll my eyes, knowingly.

"I didn't know you invited him," I hear Ike's tone shift and immediately the room goes quiet and all gazes look ahead behind me.

I stand up and turn around hesitantly, seeing his hurt expression. "Oh no, he... was just leaving." I shut the door.

"... Well..." Pit starts. "Who's up for some cake?!"

Cheers erupt again and the excitement is back. I release Pikachu and take off my boots to relax, grab a slice of cake, sit on my chair and begin a conversation with Shulk and Lucina. 20 minutes pass and I'm interrupted mid-sentence.

"Wait guys!" Sheik commands everyone's attention. "The Mario Brother's are about to go head to head, we have to go see this division's final!"

Everyone shouts in agreement and takes their snacks and heads out one by one. Palutena gives me a wavering stare but follows everyone out. Ike is last to leave.

"Are you alright?" He asks me kneeling to meet my lowered gaze. He raises his hand to my cheek and I turn away slightly. He pauses then lowers his hand.

"I'm fine... just need a little time alone..." I reply in a small voice. I finally look up to meet his gaze and he gives me a small smile, his eyes becoming a deeper shade of navy blue. He reaches and kisses me on my cheek and I feel my body warm up. He chuckles lightly knowing the effect he has on me.

"Cheer up, Sam, alright?" With that, he stands back up to leave.

"You'll come back, right?" I call after him as his hands rest on the knob.

He opens the door and winks in my direction. "You know I always do."

His last remark leaves me with butterflies, awaiting his next appearance. Ike and I are not a couple, no, not a thing either... Just... he's always there for me especially in times like these. He's been there ever since Link disappeared, always here to show me care and comfort.

I sigh heavily. I just can't be around anyone right now, although I would've loved to be with my friends right now watching the final match of the day, I just can't. I do need time alone.

"He finally spoke to me," I whisper to myself. The first word was my name but it didn't feel as right and justified as I thought it would've felt. What was he thinking those final minuets of the match, what made him stop?

Now he's going to the Grand Games Tournament because I let my emotions get in the way of my performance. But I still wouldn't have done well at the tournament, not after having to live with the fact that I beat him. Its seems I can't win for losing.

Why do things have to be complicated with him? All I ever wanted, ever needed was for him to be around me and to be with me, but it seems as though today out on the stage he had conflicted feelings about what he wants and what he needs.

And I wish I could help him, I wish I could be able to lie with him on my bed and cuddle underneath him and hear him explain all his troubles once more.

"Where did I go wrong?" I ask myself. What did I do that scared him away from me?

Suddenly, the television sprouts on, startling me a little. The Game Show Host's voice booms around my room.

"So Link, you've won your final match against Zero Suit Samus! Tell us how you're feeling right now!" Link hesitates and scratches the back of his neck. He's nervous.

"Well... I-Uh... I'm excited to compete at the Grand Games this year. I-ah... I-I've been waiting all year for this to happen and it has, once again." He looks antsy, and his words sound too scripted to be his.

The TV light reflects onto my face and a tear casually rolls down my cheek without me noticing.

I should've been there.

"That's great news to hear, Link!" The voice comes back in full bass. "What do you have to say for your competition out there?"

Link replies without skipping a beat. "I'm ready to take down any foe that crosses my path, and it does not matter who they are or what they are to me, this is a competition and I came here to win."

"Oooh...! Aggressive," The voice laughs. "That's all from here guys! Stay tuned to watch division 2's Final round: Mario versus Luigi-" I turn off the television with the remote and resume sulking. I guess I'd better start getting ready to return back to my hotel room soon for the night.

I remove my Gamplay bathing suit and collect the rest of my suits and toss them into the cloth cleaner near the door and pack my hair accessories and makeup into my duffle-bag. I throw away all the leftover food from the mini party my division threw for me and store the rest of the uneaten food into the small refrigerator.

I put on a pair of black spanx and a black choker collared crop top, release my hair from its tight hold, put on some black flip-flops and throw the rest of my clothes into my duffle-bag.

I zip up the rest of my things to prepare my room for cleaning over the break and finally walk to my door to leave.

I leave the fighting arena, saying and waving goodbye to my friends on my way out. When I walk out into the sunlight, a hard pinch surprises me on my cheek. I touch my right side.

My cut. It wasn't treated. I curse under my breath, realizing that I left too early, before Wii Fit could make her way over to my room. So I make a mental note to stop by the pharmacy and pickup some materials to treat my wounds.

When I reach my hotel room 35 minutes away from the Smash Bros. headquarters where I previously left, I open my door and inhale the familiar scent of lavender and coconut. I live on the top, highest floor, with the second largest room for one, thanks to the Smash Bros. Institution who fund most of my living standards now. I live by myself but sometimes, Lucina, Sheik and Palutena come to stay over a while. All the Smash Bros. players locate in this five star hotel to keep us the closest to the headquarters.

I walk straight into my room and make a beeline for the shower. After a brief cleansing for about 30 good minutes, I walk back out to my room and begin to unload all my items from my duffle-bag and proceed to put them in their designated locations.

"A five day break," I mutter to myself. "For the loser."

I have the option of traveling with the rest of the divisions who advanced but I'm not to sure on my decision of possibly seeing him again. I think it's better off we don't even come within close proximity of one another to keep the both of us under control.

I plop down on my bed and pull out the first aid kit I bought on the way home. I begin to disinfect and treat my bruises and wounds, silently replaying the events on the stage over and over in my head.

He was so gorgeous, it was almost scary. I noticed that over the course of the 9 months, he ditched the longer tunic and went for something a lot more masculine than before. He wore a brown cape and a dark green long-sleeved tunic with black military pants and dark brown combat boots. Most of the time during the match I didn't even want to come near him. Its so intimidating, and if looks could kill, I don't think I would've been able to even compete today. Shit, why did he have to go ahead and become a sexy god in the period that I wasn't with him?

I probably looked like straight up crap. Unlike before, my soft pretty-girl demeanor has changed. I'm no longer this perfect, little angel. My skin has gotten progressively darker, my hair is dimmer, my eyes are a deeper shade of blue and I've added on weight so I'm no longer in the petite section at the malls like the princesses. I can now fit Palutena's clothes. Nonetheless, I like the look. I always felt like I was lying while I was at that stage in my life. My hair was too blonde, too perfect, skin was too smooth and my body was too proportional. I kind of like that now my butt is bigger, my waist is smaller and I went up a cup size last month. I feel like I'm filling in my real self now.

My eyelids, heavy with exhaustion can no longer remain open. Without even knowing I drift off into a deep slumber while laying on my bed. I begin to dream...

 _"Samus..." I hear his voice calling out to me. "Samus..."_

 _I look around frantically to find him. To finally run and embrace him and to wallow in his heavy protection._

 _"Link?" I call out into the blank white atmosphere, searching dramatically for him._

 _Almost instantaneously, I feel his arms wrap around my waist. I do not pause another second and turn around and meet his lustful gaze. I wrap my arms around him and kiss him with so much passion. His lips are familiar, and soft... like butter on a knife. He gently sides his tongue in my mouth and adds more pressure onto the kiss by pushing his weight against me. The feeling becomes sickly and I feel as though I'm going to pass out any second._

 _He places a firm grip on my behind and softly lays me down against the wooden table._

 _We're in his house._

 _The recognizable scent of his tree-house overwhelms me and sprouts a new desire, a new aroma of lemons, honey and jasmine fill my lungs as he continues to interlock his lips with mine._

 _Without parting away from his kiss, I move my hands to the front of his chest, slowly lifting his tunic. He notices what I want to do, and saves time by ripping it open and tossing it to the ground._

 _Without taking a second to admire his chiseled inhumane features, his hands graze my thighs hungrily, and his finger gently pokes into my suit creating a hole. He rips it open and reveals me in my bra and panties. He parts away from my lips and I moan in disapproval. He turns me around, my back facing his chest and brushes up against me, wanting to feel every part of my body against him. I hear him groan lowly and it excites me even more. His lips trail down my neck to my shoulder and he proceeds lower till he reaches my behind. His hand quickly, pleasurably, and sharply moves across my behind, bringing me to cry out. His lips continue to scan over my backside and his teeth softly scrape the lining of my underwear. He doesn't cease to pull at my underwear with his teeth until it slides all the way off-_

"Samus!" I hear Palutena's loud voice call out to me. "Sam, wake up!"

"Whaa..? I'm awake!" I sit up quickly startled from my dream. I look down at my stomach and see a pool of sweat in my bellybutton. I heave a heavy sigh still kind of startled and taken by surprise.

That was more erotic than I hoped it would be.

"Samus, hurry get up, take a shower and get dressed," Palutena moves quickly around the room picking clothes from out my drawers, opening the curtains, nearly blinding me and throws a clean towel at me. "What are you doing sitting there, get up!"

"Okay, okay.." I slide off of my bed knocking down the first aid materials from the previous... night?

"Palutena what time is it?" I ask a little worried.

"It's 2:22 P.M., Hun. Where have you been all morning?"

"Uhh... sleeping?" I reply pointing to my bed. I slept for a while then, it's a whole new day and I missed 12 hours of it already, oh how I love breaks.

"I'm pretty sure I asked Lucina to come up here and wake you up..." Palutena huffs angrily. Knowing Lucina, she probably did attempt to wake me up, but she probably just tapped me three times, shook me once and gave up.

"Wait, what are we rushing for?" I ask.

"Um, the pool party? Have you forgotten?" Palutena looks at me in disbelief.

I actually did forget, oh wow.

"Umm... pool party for...?" I tread lightly on my tone because I know how aggressive Palutena can get.

"For the Champions! Sam, how could you forget?!" She practically shouts at me.

I sigh once again. "I don't feel like a champion..." I mutter. "I gave up Tina, I don't even really much want to go."

"You do," Palutena replies sternly. "And you're going to the Grand Games Tournament and you're going to kick ass."

"What? Tina, I'm not going to compete." I answer her a little thrown off. "I didn't beat Link, I didn't advance."

"No, Link dropped out yesterday at midnight, so you're going as a runner up."

WHAT?!

"WHAT?! Are you serious?!" I am beyond shocked.

"Yep," She confirmed. "So your break is over, you need to be back to train in 2 days."

"Tina no," I'm so confused. Link... he seemed so sure of himself. Well part of him did at least. "No..."

"What do you mean no-"

At a rapid pace, I speed towards his room down the hallway. This can't be...

Why are you bothering, Sam? You get to compete now, relax.

"SAMUS!" I hear Palutena's voice call my name from down the hallway.

I cut the corner swiftly and stop right at his door. What am I even going to say? What if he doesn't answer? I raise my hand to knock but hesitate. All I need are answers, then I'll leave.

I knock twice and wait anxiously outside his room.

Almost unknowingly, the dream I had earlier precipitously begins to replay itself.

FUCK.

When he opens the door, he is shirtless. Even in his own natural state, he looks so titillating. From the looks of it, it seems as though he just got through showering. His dark blonde hair is tousled and damp and his eyes shine bright with a crystallizing glare. My mouth opens to form words but nothing comes out. Did I even brush my teeth?

"I-I...uh...um, uhhh..." I start. What the hell is going on, get a grip Sam!

"Uh, um, I-I..." He looks at me hesitantly, waiting for my words to emerge.

Think Samus think!

"She was just leaving to go get ready. Sorry about this, Link,"Stern hands grab me by my shoulders and pulls me out of the hallway and into my room.

Sheik throws me onto the ground once she shuts the door. "What the hell is wrong with you, Sam? What were you doing?"

"I-," I begin but she interrupts.

"You're going to be late for the pool party!"

"I don't want to go to a pool party!" I whine and pout on the ground where I am. I look up and actually take a second to look around. Palutena, Lucina and Sheik are all dressed in sexy bathing suits that really compliment their physique, along with their hair and makeup done. They look hot.

"Wait how did you all get in here?" I asked dumbfounded.

"Your door was unlocked and you gave us all spare keys." Lucina clarifies. "Now Samus, please go in the bathroom to freshen up for this party, you can whine about it later."

I sigh and get up, slowly making my way to my bathroom no more energy to fight them. While I'm in my shower, the events in my dream continues to replay itself. Not being able to take being in my restroom alone, I turn off my shower 15 minutes earlier and walk out to meet the rest of the girls.

Palutena tosses me a pile of black strings. "Here, put this on. Your sheer coverup is on your bed if you want to wear it. Lucina is going to do your hair and makeup and we have your bag packed already so when you guys are done meet us downstairs in the lobby."

Palutena, and Sheik walk out one by one out the door, and I proceed to put on the tiny black bikini. It's cute, I guess but it may be showing just a little too much skin.

"Lucy, don't you think that this is a little 'too sexy' for a pool party with your teammates?"

She shakes her head after looking over at it. "Nah, you have the body to fit it so it looks fine. Great actually. It seems like you an Ike will be having a lot of alone time tonight and maybe Link will simultaneously come crawling back?" She winks at me and laughs.

"Ha-ha very funny," I sit down on the little furry stool in front my mirror and patiently wait for the curling rod to heat up. "But I only wish..."

"Wait, wish for which part?" Lucina asks me while brushing through my hair.

"... Link.." I mutter underneath my breath.

"Oh yeah, you guys have a lot of misrepresented sexual tension that you guys need to clear up, and it was immensely vivid during you guys' match." Lucina nudges me playfully. "What was going on back there?"

"The princess is going to hate me," I barely grumble.

"Why do you care if the princess likes you or not?" Lucina's tone shifts.

"I don't actually, I'm just trying to make sure that she takes him too far because of me."

Lucina runs the rod through my hair and holds it for only 5 seconds to create loose beach waves. I continue to talk.

"Lucy it felt so different fighting him this time around," I blurted. "He even looks different, did you guys notice?"

"Of course, we all had our time to girl about it," She responds lightheartedly.

"Fighting him, of course, made it so emotionally difficult for me," I continue. "I didn't want to hurt him but it was what I had to do."

"What about when you just stopped moving?" Lucina asks.

"I wanted to see how he was going to react, you know? I wanted to see how bad he really wanted to go to the Grand Games. It turns out that he just wasted an opportunity by denouncing his title of going. What makes it worse is that now my name everywhere around the Grand Games central is going to be seen as "Runner up". I hate it Lucina, I do, and you know me. One thing I also realized when we were fighting is that ink seems like he's dealing with a lot of inner demons. He turned from vengeful to sensual in just a matter of seconds so I could only imagine what he's really going through."

"The Princess wants to move back to Hyrule," Lucina tells me.

I stop my train of thought. "What?"

What is up with all this new news today? Lucina finishes with my hair in a nick of time then quickly moves on to my makeup.

"Yes," Lucina confirms. "And she wants Link to come back with her. I don't think they're coming back. Rumor has it that they're planning on getting married and starting a family in Hyrule and leaving the institution for good. No turning back." Lucina finishes with my eyeliner and adds a little blush and bronzer for dramatic effect.

"He really is moving back...?" Tears start to form in my eyes.

"Yeah, I even talked to him, he sai-... Samus? Are you crying?"

Lucina engulfs me in a solid hug. "I'm sorry, I knew this wasn't the right time. Not after hearing about the Games..."

"And that's why he backed out..." I concluded. "Because they're planning on leaving soon."

"Don't think about that now," Lucina rubs my back sternly. She pulls back to wipe the tears from my eyes, careful not to ruin the makeup. "We're going to a beach party and the four of us will be the hottest girls there, no doubt. But you my dear, will be the belle of the ball. And every guy will be falling at their feet for you. Let's not discuss this now but instead lets head downstairs so we can get going, okay?" I nod obediently.

"Alright, grab your shawl and your shoes, let me unplug this and clean up a little." Lucina begins to pack up the hair accessories and take one look in the mirror.

My hair is packed with curls of different sizes to give it more of a natural look and it falls heavily down my back and looks like a clamp of harvested wheat, healthy and fertilized.

However, my face... although I did see Lucina put makeup on me, I expected it to be bold, dramatic and eye catching but it was subtle and gave me a natural highlight to my features. My eyelids looked amazing, like caramel syrup was oozed onto them, topped with a dark coat of mascara and a nude lip gloss to finish it off. My cheeks looked bronzed and baked, like I've been sitting under the sun for a perfect amount of time, I loved it.

"Thank you so much Lucina," I ran over to her and hugged her tight. "You're the best, literally."

She smiles in return. "Anytime, sugar."

Without wasting anymore time, I throw on my sheer shawl, side on my flip flops and head downstairs.

I took the stairs because I had no time to wait for the elevator. On my way down the second floor, I hear voices whispering loudly at the bottom of the stair.

"She's going to be there, I know," I hear a familiar voice. Princess Zelda. "Link isn't coming but she's still going to try to find a way to talk to him and I can't let that happen."

"If she knew what was good for her, she wouldn't even go near him," I hear Princess Peach snarl as well.

"I mean, we all saw the fight yesterday. She obviously still has feelings for him," Princess Rosalina responds.

"Which is why it's so important for us to leave soon," Zelda replies in a forbidding tone. "We can't leave her with any time with him to spare."

Someone opens the door above me and they hear the sound and immediately scatter into the exit.

I think, while pulling out my cellphone in my shawl. I text Palutena:

'I'll meet you guys at the party, I promise. I just have to take care of something important really quickly.'

I bolt back upstairs and make my way toward his room again.

When I stop in front of his door, I actually think of what I should say. "All I'm going to say, is first ask him why he's not going, then persuade him to go, because I can't take his spot in the Grand Games. That's all Samus. Then, we go to the pool party and all is well. Okay, here goes..."

I knock on the door once this time and wait patiently. It doesn't take long before I hear the locks turn and the door fidget. I take a deep breath.

When he opens the door, I realize that I may have stepped closer to his door while knocking. I step back hesitantly and finally look up from the carpet beneath me. When I raise my head up, I come face to chest with a green muscle top that's pulsing heavily. I clear my throat and raise my head higher to finally meet his lingering blue gaze.

"Yes, Sam?" His voice booms withing my ears and makes me tremble inside.

"I... I-I heard that you... um, dropped out of the tournament..." I start, breathing slowly to make sure he hears every word and not just muttering.

"Yeah, I did," He admits. My heart nearly sinks. "Would you like to come in and talk about it?"

My breathing stops. Relax Samus. He's not inviting you to his bed, just to talk. Right.

"Um, sure, yes, okay!" I think I gave him 3 different responses but what does it matter anyway, they all mean the same thing. He slides to the side and inch giving me little room between him and the door to get inside. I try the best I can move inside without brushing up completely against him; but I fail tremendously and my arm grazes his hand on the way in. Great, more sentimental hints.

I take a seat on one of his plushy white sofas and patiently wait until he finishes with the door.

"Would you like anything to drink?" He turns around and walks forward with grace looking directly at me. I feel my cheeks burn.

"Er... no, I'm fine..." I reply averting away from his eyes.

"Are you sure?" He asks with a hint of tease his tone. "Not even Mango-berry Caribbean punch?"

I look up, immediately recognizing the words and see him giving me a sly smirk while pouring up two glasses. That was the drink we'd use to share at the bar downstairs when we were together. What is he getting at?

Without saying another word he gently hands me the glass cup, his finger sightly touching mine. I almost freeze at the subtle immediate contact, but is quick to regain my composure. He places a chair in front of me and sits down, directly facing me. I distract myself from making eye contact by taking a long sip of the punch.

"Why don't I start from the beginning?" He sets his glass down on a nearby coffee table, drowning half of the cup already. He takes a deep breath and looks at me.

"Samus... I," He stops and takes another deep breath. "I'm sorry for hurting you... Yesterday and in November last year. I.." He leans in closer and bows his head. "If you only knew how much it was hurting me on the inside- but we are not here to talk about that just yet..."

He takes another deep breath, obviously having a hard time. "I.. I-You," He starts again then stops and shakes his head dramatically abstaining from making eye contact. "I apologize, I-I... you just look very beautiful, I can't even-"

My eyes widen, startled but also flattered. Little does he know, he's making it harder for me to even be here sitting in front of him. He clears his throat loudly, bringing my attention to his blue eyes again.

"I couldn't deal with the fact that you were going to be at home completely idle because of something I had going on inside with myself. I didn't want to see you not be successful, Samus, because you deserve all the success in the world. And I just couldn't take that from you... not after what I did to you 9 months ago..."

"Link..." I surprise myself by calling out in a delicate gentle voice. He immediately becomes alert to what I have to say. "The thing is that I want to see you be successful. It doesn't matter what you did to me 9 months ago, what doesn't change is my willingness to see you go far. I would've always been here for you, Link. I just don't know where I went wrong..." My voice cracks and I stop myself before I ruin all of Lucina's hard work.

"No, No," He moves himself closer, sitting next to me and awkwardly places his hand around my shoulder. "It's not something you did, Sam. It was never you. You were perfect... I-I," He stops again, wanting to choose his words carefully. "I just felt that I was never going to be the man you deserved to have. Sam, you deserve any good guy out there, most definitely not me. Someone who will treat you as well as you treat others. And I just over-thought everything without even coming to tell you first, I just acted..."

"What about the Princess?" I ask.

"It's a long story, and we don't have much time," He sighs releasing his grip and laying his head in his hands. "But I promise I will explain it all to you, just please forgive me. Forgive me and go to the Grand Games and be successful. I'll be fine."

"I'm not going if you don't go, Link," I reply without looking at him, crossing my arms. "This is your Tournament, and I refuse to go as a 'runner-up'."

Link chuckles and it sounds heavenly. "I think I can work something out..." He looks at me a unique glint to his eyes. Feeling the atmosphere rise, I bite my lip out of habit. His eyes move down to my lips and lingers for a minute. My cheeks burn and my heart rate increases dramatically.

His eyes continue to travel lower and stops at my bust. Not knowing what to do or how to react, I clear my throat and his eyes meet mine, once again and he smirks. My eyes flicker down to his lips quickly but I feel that he notices. "You really do look great, Samus..."

His lips are familiar, and soft... like butter on a knife. He gently sides his tongue in my mouth ...

"Uh, thanks..." I reply hesitantly with a smile.

I look down and noticed that the both of us have simultaneously moved closer. My thigh touches his knee slightly and sends waves of electric shock through me. I begin to feel a tingling in a familiar spot and as though he senses it, I see his pupils dilate and the blue is almost hardly noticeable.

"Are you coming to the pool party?" I ask not taking my eyes of of his. "Everyone's going to be there..."

"No, I don't feel like coming," He replies not breaking my gaze. "I'd rather stay here and take a break from everyone."

"That's what I wanted to do, but the girls kept forcing me to come," I answer my eyes breaking his stare for only a second.

"Why were they forcing you to come?" He asks. "You're better off here... with me..." He grins, grabs one of my waves and twirls it around his finger.

"My original plan wasn't to come here, Link," I look at my lap and smile a little. "And I should get going..."

"But you came anyway," His tone shifts noticeably. "And Sam?"

I look up at him, alert. "Yes?"

"Are we cool?" He looks at me in anticipation and once again his eyes travel to my lips.

"I... " I start talking but am so distracted from his face, how I wish I could kiss his soft, plushy lips, and not only dream about doing it.

"I don't know, Link," I smirk and his eyebrows raise in interest. "Are we?"

"I've missed you, you know," He mutters almost to himself.

"I know," I move a lock of hair covering his eyes and he smiles knowingly. "But you're going to have to miss me more, because I have to go." I stand up, hand him the glass of punch and walk toward the door.

He stands up and follows me to see me out, unlocking the door. I step out and immediately begin to walk down the hallway to the stairs.

"See you around," I hear him call out.

I turn around momentarily and smile. "See you around."


	3. Chapter 3

I took a cab and arrived in a nick of time. From outside the gates of the pool residence, I could hear music booming, laughter and water splashing. It already seems like everyone is having a great time.

I walk through the gates hesitantly looking for the three people who were supposedly waiting for me but as my eyes scan the perimeter outside of the building, I notice that a few pairs of eyes are staring at me. I duck my head a little low and continue inside the building where the party really happens.

The pool hall is nicely decorated with pop colors of teal and highlighter pink. The lights in the pool against the walls shine bright with a pinkish hue. The roof is open and the sun shines brightly and majestically through the room, reflecting onto the water creating beautiful, colorful waves onto the walls. My body, still sore from my matches the day before aches to release all the pain away in the water.

Talking to Link this afternoon really helped me get some ground footing with my emotions. I feel a lot lighter and at ease, and in fact, more on top of the world with anticipation and adrenaline to see him privately again.

He always had that kind of effect on me, so much that when he left and Ike came along, I always craved his return and awaited on his arrival, to see him again, to be stimulated and to be at ease. The feelings he give off to me are toxic and I wonder, this may not be such a bad idea to attend after all.

Over the dancing heads in the water and standing around me, I spot Sheik's golden blonde hair and make my way over to her immediately. I push my way through the crowd receiving "Hey!"'s and "Sam, come chill with us!" on the way over.

When I reach the table Sheik turns around sensibly and her eyes go wide.

"What the fuck?! Samus is that you?! You look seriously hot!"

I grin at her and wrap my arms around her in friendly embrace. "Right back at you, Ki! You look stunning, I've honesty almost never seen you this girly before."

"Well this is the party for champions..." She responds as matter of fact. "I gotta look cute for my best friend one time."

I laugh with her and raise her hands up with mine as we simultaneously sway to the beat of the music.

From the corner of my eye, I see Lucina and Palutena walk up to me and they both embrace me at the same time.

"What happened?" Palutena asks. "I didn't even think you would've shown up after that message."

"Yeah," Lucina agrees. "I would've been so upset, I'd done all that makeup and hair for nothing?!"

I smile genuinely at them. "No, Lucy, I would never," I causally answer. "I just had to take care of a few things."

They both nod deciding not to go too much into detail at the current scene. "What are we waiting for?" I remove my shawl and place it with the others. "Let's get in the water!"

The four of us cheer and make our way to the diving board, and dive in in single file into the large pool. We play and splash in the water for a good hour, while others join in the fun. A few minutes after, we decide that it's about time for grubbing.

When I exit the water and walk back over to the table we have set up, I move to slide on my flip flops and immediately I feel two strong arms wrap around my waist and a bare chest press up against me.

I smile to myself already knowing who it is. I turn around to face him, but his arms do not release from me.

"Well don't you look delicious," Ike's voice purrs lowly in my ear and I giggle at the tingly sensation. It must be the punch. I think it's spiked with some bourbon.

"I've been looking for you," I reply to him wrapping my arms around his neck. "You said you'd come back."

"Well I'm here, aren't I?" He nestles himself in the crook of my neck, his lips slightly grazing my shoulder. I feel his lips catch hold onto my skin and I almost moan aloud at the feeling.

Palutena passes behind me and swats at the both of us. "Ugh, gross. You two get a room."

"There are plenty here," I hear him mumble in my ear as I casually run my fingers through his hair. He lightly bites my earlobe and I squeak in surprise.

"Ike!" I exclaim. He pulls back and grins widely at me his eyes glittering through the sunlight. "Stop!"

"Oh come on," his hands move lower down my waist to my hips and finger lightly brushes my behind. "You know you like that..."

"Oh yeah?" I smirk mischievously at him and pull back and shove him hard. He goes flying back into the water and makes a huge splash. "I know you like that one as well." I turn and Sheik raises her hand to receive a high five. I slap her hand victoriously and proceed to eat some of the fruit displayed on our table. I then walk over to the catering table and pick up two pieces of baby back ribs with a side of macaroni and cheese with greens.

Us four girls sit at the table and munch delicately at our food. From the corner of our eyes, we see the Princesses seated at a table across the pool from us along with Princess Daisy who must have come along for the ride. We see them casually look back at us from time to time and they immediately become the topic of discussion.

"Is there a reason why they continue to look over here?" Lucina asks, annoyed.

"Probably jealous..." Palutena suggests. "Or maybe just because."

"Well it's annoying," Lucina responds. "And what is Princess Daisy doing here anyway? She's not in the Smash Bros. Institution."

"They've always had a problem with us, so I would expect it," Sheik adds nonchalantly. "Especially Zelda."

"I honestly don't know what Link was thinking when we decided to dump you and date her," Palutena sighs and begins to become interested in her plate. "She's seriously annoying and she's a brat."

"I honestly don't know either, not to be cocky or anything," I respond, eyeing them closely. "But there's no reason to compare, he obviously believed otherwise, if he wouldn't even consider being my friend anymore. Even then so, she looks 3."

"Right," Sheik agrees. "I honestly thought he was smarter than that."

"Hmm..." I grumble to myself. Link is smart, smart enough to know that Zelda legitimately looks more like his sister than he does his girlfriend. Why would he choose her out of all princesses? Aside from the fact that they come from the same place...

"I'm going back in the water, you guys care to join?" I raise my eyebrows to spark interest.

"Duh!" The three of them respond. We abandon our plates nearly finished and hop back into the pool.

About 4 hours of hardcore partying later, the sun goes down and the stars come out in its elemental beauty and creates a different kind of light for us. It's 10:39 and the fairy lights on the walls flicker on and now the entire pool hall has a soft, fictional glow about the place.

I exit the pool, dry myself off with a towel and tell the girls that I'm headed home to get some rest. They all hug me and tell me that they'll see me tomorrow in the morning. But I already know I'll be up all night thinking of just one person...

On my way out of the gates, a hand grabs me by my arm and pulls me in close. I feel Ike's warm chest rising and falling against me and he wraps his arms once again around me. I imitate his actions and we stand still in embrace.

"Are you willing to take me up on that offer now?" He asks me, a playful tone in his voice.

"It's late," I mutter to him, looking him in his eyes. "Don't you want to know that I am at home safe?"

His lips turn upward. "You're safe, here with me." With that he leans in and gently connects his lips with mine.

I pull him in deeper by placing my hands around his neck and he squeezes my waist tightly. When we release, he places his head against mine and rests there for a moment.

"Come stay with me for a while..." He mutters close to my ear and plants long kisses in the crook of my neck.

"Ike..." I quietly moan so only he can hear. The minute it happens I feel his hear rate accelerate against me, and I wish I hadn't.

Ike is a great guy, don't get me wrong. And maybe I was lying earlier about the fact that he and I-we weren't a thing, because to everyone else we are. He does make me feel better and helps me relive my thoughts and worries but there's only one person on my mind constantly. I simply just can't get over the sensation I get when I'm around Ike. It's a different vibe and it makes me feel rebellious and makes me want to do crazy things. Truthfully, I don't want to give it up.

But there's so much... tension between Link and I, it's impossible to ignore. I'm just really conflicted.

I feel Ike's fingers run down my back and it sends shivers through me. I reach forward again and meet his lips. His lips are gentle, easy and sweet. I slowly draw back midway and my teeth grab hold of his lower lip and I nibble on it tenderly. He groans underneath me and without wasting any time he slides his tongue into my mouth and pulls me closer to him. I feel him against me and I pull his head in deeper, slowly running my fingers through his hair.

Two minutes into the kiss and we both pull back and break for air. I see a smirk form on his lips and I shove him back, playfully.

"C'mere," he grabs my hand promptly and leads me through the gate and to his car parked around the corner. He opens the passenger seat for me and I step in. He then retreats to the drivers side and steps in without hesitating.

"Let's hope I'm sober enough to drive back to the hotel," he grins at me as he starts the engine.

"Ike I swear if you kill me tonight-" I start but he interrupts me.

"What, you'll kill me?" He chuckles and his grin couldn't get any wider. "I already knew that."

I roll my eyes with a smirk. "Just shut up and drive."

"Roger that..." He steps on the gas and he speeds away till we reach the hotel.

We walk up the stairs giggling and giddy from the extra vodka we drank on the way back so we're a little tipsy, not completely drunk. We knew we were breaking the rules but who gives, we didn't get into an accident, luckily.

When reach Ike's door he unlock it and swings opens the door. He then turns around to me and gently picks me up.

"Mm, you're not as heavy as I expected," his tone is risqué and I kiss him on his nose and wrap my legs around him.

"Oh shut up," I reply looking directly at him. "You know I'm heavy. Don't try to act like you're stronger than you think you are."

"Oh?" He raises an eyebrow kicking the door close and proceeding to sit me on top of his bed. He removes my cardigan and tosses it towards the front door. "Sam, that sounds like a challenge."

I slide off my flip flops and cup his head in my hands. "It's okay, baby, you don't have to play pretend in front of me." I pinch his nose softly. "I already know how much you bench and it's not as much as you think it is."

He chuckles and moves closer to my face. "Mm... You've been stalking me."

"No, not stalking," I place a soft kiss on his lips. "Just paying attention."

"I like that," he coos and returns the kiss by placing another one on my lips and bites it softly. I let out a small giggle.

I release his head and he steps back in anticipation.

I smirk, deciding to take this a different route. "Take off your pants," I command in an authoritative tome.

He raises both his eyebrows and grins. "Controlling, are we?"

"Cmon, do it, what are you waiting for?"

"Y-yes, ma'am," he proceeds to remove his cargo shorts and reveals his trousers made with spandex. I cover my mouth immediately and stifle laughter.

He looks at me, and rolls his eyes. "Your turn, take off your bikini."

"It's a one piece," I respond.

"Did I ask?" He quickly comes back and I smirk at him.

"Okay," I undo the tie in the back and it slides off my shoulders, my chest now being exposed. My areolas harden under the temperature. I see his eyes widen and a bulge creates in his underwear. My cheeks warm up.

"You like what you see?" I taunt him. "Now your turn, take off the rest."

"Are you sure about that?" He smirks. "I don't want to scare you away."

"I think I can handle it," I wink at him and toss my hair to my back.

"Okay, you asked for it," he pulls down his boxers and...

My eyes go wide, my cheeks go red and my mouth opens in an 'O'. His glan is glazed over with pre-cum and if I didn't have any right sense, I'd say it looks almost appetizing.

He looks me in my eyes and grins. "What's wrong Sam? Cat got your tongue?"

He moves closer to me and stands in between my legs. "What are you waiting for? Take off the rest of your bikini."

"Shh..." I place my index finger in the middle of his soft lips and he stops immediately. I replace my finger with my lips and kiss him passionately. He kisses me back for only a second and pulls back and pushes me gently onto the bed. I fall back and he climbs on top of me and resumes against my lips. I wrap my arms around his neck and he leans in closer till I feel him against me. I wrap my legs around his and flip him over on to his back. He chuckles.

"Yeah, this is most definitely a challenge."

"Not a challenge if I've already won," I mutter in-between his kisses. I slowly release him from underneath my heavy weight and he takes this chance to flip me back over the other side.

"You just won't stop, will you?" I pull back momentarily to smirk at him.

"Nuh-uh, never," He grins and places kisses all over my neck and travels down to my collarbone, and stops at my bust. He uses his hand to cup my left breast, as his lips massage the other.

I let out a small moan as his tongue lightly sweeps across the tip of my breast.

"Shh..." He shushes me, with a slight turn to his lips. "Don't get too loud now."

He travels down lower, planting small kisses on my stomach down to my pelvis where my bikini bunches up.

He locks his eyes with mine and slowly removes the rest of the bikini and it slides all the way down my legs. He continues to place kisses all along my thighs and around me. His lips finally touch the place that's been begging for attention all the while and I moan loudly.

Soon following, I feel his enlarged manhood slowly entering me...

* * *

I wake up promptly, my eyes fluttering to adjust to the sun glaring through the curtains, forcing me to turn over to my right and coming face to... chest with Ike.

His eyes are closed and he breathes almost effortlessly in a rhythmic pattern. My eyes traces down from his closed lids to his nose, the side of his jaw then his lips. He looks strong and commanding even in sleep. Like a god watching over his civilians, a warrior protecting his townspeople.

Slowly but surely the events from last night begin to replay itself in my head. I smile to myself, satisfaction waving over my face. 'My warrior.' I think.

"What are you smiling about..." I hear his deep, groggy rumble from underneath me and feel his gentle fingers run through my hair. I wrap my arms around him and sit in his chest for a while.

"Nothing..." I mutter "I just had a lot of fun last night."

A low rumble comes underneath, and I presume he is laughing. I grin.

"What was so special about last night that you forgot about the rest of the afternoon?"

I see what he's hinting at, making it seem like I didn't enjoy being with my friends as much as I enjoyed being with him. "Well yesterday night was the best part, end of story."

He pulls me in closer and rests his head against mine.

I hit a strange realization about what happened last night and noticed that I couldn't feel my legs. "You have a really big dick." I say without thinking twice. Immediately I cover my mouth with my hands and my eyes go seriously wide. "Fuck!"

Ike Laughs loudly, a giant hearty laugh. He's now wide awake. "Thinking out loud, huh?"

"Ugh!" I groan and remove the covers to get out of the bed. "I need to get away from you."

"Where are you going, come back!" He tries to grab my hand but I pull it away violently.

I take one step off of the bed and I nearly fall face forward, but I catch myself on the nightstand.

I hear Ike laughing loudly again and I stand up and glare at him. "Fuck you, Ike."

"Hey, hey!" He exclaims between fits of laughter. "This isn't my fault! I'm sorry, I can't control my size."

"Shut the hell up," I huff at him but he just continues to laugh. "Hmph... I've had bigger..." I mumble quietly.

I take a seat on the floor and try to think of what I'm going to do in order to get back up on my feet.

"Babe?" I hear Ike chuckle from on top of the bed. "Are you alright down there?"

"Why don't you come over and see for yourself?" I taunt him with a smirk on my face.

I hear him move across the bed-sheets and peers down below me and sees me with two fingers rubbing against my clitoris while my free hand pinches my areola.

"Fuck..." I hear him curse dramatically and he licks his lips and I see his pupils dilate.

"Gimme a kiss," I turn my head upward and he moves his head closer to mine. I close his eyes, signaling him to do the same; which he does, but I peek with one eye and quickly move out of the way causing him to fall face forward onto the ground.

"You fucking tease," He huffs angrily underneath his breath. I laugh and I take this opportunity to run slowly across the room to the other side of the room. He quickly follows me on my heels but I continue to doge his grabs. I hop on the bed successfully and continue to run until I reach the doors to the bathroom. I quickly enter and then shut the doors behind me.

He pushes against the door. "Open it up Samus, you don't want to play this game..."

"You don't know what I want, Ike," I reply my head pushed up closely against the door.

"Are you sure about that?" I hear his voice drift away from the door so I take this opportunity to rapidly walk to the shower and turn it on.

I step in slowly, carefully not to slip, since my legs already feel sore.

I push open the shower doors midway and I hear Ike's voice again advancing toward the door. "I'm coming through Sam, so watch out before you get hurt."

"I think I'm alright," I reply loud enough so that he would think I'm still next to the door.

He pushes through with immense force and gradually comes to a stop when he sees me standing in the shower, the water dripping down my hair past my shoulders and onto my skin. He looks me up and down and languidly advances toward me.

"You just won't stop will you?" He smirks placing his hands on my hips lifting me up onto him. I wrap my legs around him pulling the shower door close. He pushes me against the shower wall while the water splashes against his back.

"Nuh-uh, never," I reply quoting his exact words. He closes in the rest of the space and connects his lips with mine.

The whole day I spent in Ike's room and not once left. We ordered room service, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All day we sat, talked, played around, made out and watched the other divisions in other towns compete for their final rounds for a shot at the Grand Games tournament. He taught me also how to use his sword without trying to kill myself, I did get a few scratches but I'm not sure if they were from his sword though or from... Something else. I did however pick another alternative instead of walking around his room naked, and decided to put on one of his old white tunic and his cape while my other things we're in the laundry.

Currently, we are in his bed cuddled up against one another watching the matches compete while eating pasta and grilled asparagus,with sauteed onions, tomatoes and brussel sprouts for dinner. I'm in the middle of feeding Ike his last piece of asparagus when the door begins to rapidly shake from knocking. Startled, we both jump causing me to lightly poke him with the fork that was holding the asparagus and it falls onto the bed sheets. I snicker quietly seeing a little of the grilled juice land on his cheek. I slowly reach to slide my tongue over his cheek but he stands up abruptly to address whoever's at the door. I nearly lean into his food but I catch myself.

"Great," Ike mumbles and smiles knowingly at me and peers through the peephole to see who it was. He sighs dramatically and begins to unlock the door. "It's the girls."

When the door finally unlocks, he opens it midway, but its instantly sprung open and bangs against the wall by Sheik who stomps in Palutena and Lucina following behind.

Once they see me their eyes go wide and their facial expressions nearly change from one with anger and indignation to complete disbelief and surprise.

"Samus?" Lucina asks questioningly.

I exchange looks between the three of them and I see Ike behind them running his hands through his hair becoming impatient. "Yes, that's my name."

"When did you guys get married and start living in the same room?" Sheik asks exasperated.

"Well Good Morning to you guys too," I mutter quietly.

"The morning has been over Sam, its 10:08 P.M." Answers Palutena in an un-amused tone.

"I lost track of time...?" I shrug with a smirk.

"Yeah, obviously," Lucina scoffs.

"What's the big deal guys, why can't I be here with Ike?" I ask them. They continue to glare at me. "There's nothing wrong with this, and I'm actually having a good time."

"You didn't even bother to tell us you were here?" Sheik's tone becomes dangerous.

"Okay, first of all Sheik, don't act like you haven't talked to or seen your little boytoy all day." I point a finger accusingly at her.

"Oh don't try to play that with me," She sniffs. "We weren't even in Shadow's room."

"But you were in your room?" I quickly respond. She looks away from my gaze and I nod, knowing the truth. "Oh, and what about you Lucina," I switch my gaze to hers. "You want me to believe that you and Robin haven't seen each other all day?"

"That's not the point, Sam," Lucina replies cooling down "And that is totally different."

"No, I don't think it is," I reply to her crossing my arms around my chest. "Its the exact same."

"Okay, you guys had sex last night that's fine," Palutena interjects. "But that doesn't mean you completely ignore your friends the whole day."

"How do you know if we decided to have sex more than one time," I raise an eyebrow at her. "What if we chose to have sex every single hour of the day? Then it wouldn't be that I was ignoring you guys, but that I was too occupied getting piped by Ike. None of this has anything to do with anything, just what do you guys need?"

"Yeah, cause... uhh, my foods kinda getting cold," I hear Ike mumble from behind them

"Come over here baby, and eat your food before it gets cold," I pat the empty spot next to me where he previously was and look directly into the eyes of the three of them.

Ike walks over cautiously and Sheik shoves him dramatically across the room but he doesn't lose his footing. He turns back around and grins at Sheik. "Oooh, I actually felt a little muscle in that one, Ki."

"Oh really?" She taunts. "There's more where that came from."

"Yeah, I don't get why you guys are upset with me," Ike resumes to take his seat next to me, pulls me in close by my waist and kisses me on my cheek. "We had a blast all day today, and I did not keep her against her will."

"Yeah," I agree immediately after he finishes his sentence.

"Also, I mean, can I help it?" He looks from them to me. "She's hot."

"Yeah," I nod in agreement.

"And she has the nicest pair of boobs in the world," He continues.

"Yeah," I continue to nod my head in agreement.

They all simultaneously raise an eyebrow at me.

"Wait, no, I think that last one was a bit too much for them," I look to Ike who shakes his head in disagreement while chewing on his pasta.

"Nope, and she has a nice huge ass," He continues. "It almost makes me think she had got them done, but then I got up behind her and found out myself that that ass was all-"

"O-K, that's enough," Palutena shouts over him.

"But you get the point," Ike winks at them.

"Anyways, aside from coming to look for you, we also needed to tell you that Link stopped by your room this morning." Lucina says.

The atmosphere becomes still and I stop eating my pasta. I gently drop my fork and immediately become attentive to Lucina. I feel Ike tense beside me.

"What did he need?" I reply slowly and becoming seriously excited in my head. "Did he need anything?"

"Not really, he just wanted to tell you about how everything worked out with the Grand Games," She continues to explain. "By the way, you realize that you just asked the same question twice, right?"

I roll my eyes. "Get on with it."

"He stopped by again in the afternoon thinking that you were either still asleep in the morning or hungover, but you still weren't there."

Aw, damn.

"You might want to still go talk to him before he goes to bed because practices and training start tomorrow, if you are still competing and-or willing to go."

"Uhh..." I turn to look at Ike expectantly.

He smiles. "What are you looking at me for, go see what the guy wants before it's too late, stupid."

I smile and lightly shove him. "I'll be back. And if I'm not back in time, goodnight Ike." I pul him in close and give him a small peck on his lips.

I remove the bed sheets and step off the bed sliding into my flip fops.

"Oh, and you might not want to go in that..." Palutena motions to my attire.

"Hey what's wrong with my stuff?" Ike protests on the bed.

"Don't worry, I'll change. I just need to stop by my room," Sheik opens the door and they all file out muttering their goodbyes to Ike and I turn and give him one last look.

"You'll be back right?" He asks me with a friendly smirk.

"Always," I wink at him and with that, I turn back around and close his door.

The three girls follow me to my room and once I open it, they all walk in silently.

When I close the door, I turn back and look at them anticipation. "What?"

"Sam, stop messing around with Ike," Palutena sighs and rubs her hands down her face.

"What? What do you mean, why?" I frown at her words and look toward the other two feeling myself getting defensive.

"Sam, we mean this is the most honest way possible, and we're telling you now before things get bad," Lucina tells me nonchalantly. "Ike really, really likes you, but it's obvious you have feelings for Link."

"That's not confirmed yet though," I tell them. "And I never told you guys that I didn't like Ike, I actually like him a lot..." I remove the cape and tunic and look in my drawer for a pair of windbreaker shorts and an over-sized t-shirt. "I don't see the problem."

"The problem is that, we all know Link feels something for you, you guys were each others first love blah blah blah... I mean hello?" Sheik rolls her eyes. "We see the chemistry you two have but sooner or later you're going to have to choose."

"Last time I checked, if Link ever had feelings for me, he would've already broken up with the Princess but he hasn't so what am I supposed to do?" I slide on my pants then throw on the T-shirt.

"Definitely not lead Ike on and have sex for the time being. He's developing real feelings for you Samus. And I'm honestly scared for him to be heartbroken." Paultena replies.

"Why are you scared for him?" I narrow my eyebrows even more.

"Because, you're naturally intimidating, and it's not a bad thing but sometimes you can be dangerous without even saying a word, or doing anything, really. Plus you do have a high reputation. You have that power and although you don't even realize it, Ike is definitely feeding into it. You're almost impossible to reject, and it's not your character." Lucina adds. "It's the vibe you give off."

"I give off intimidating vibes?" I question her. "Okay, now you guys are really starting to not make any sense at all."

"Just listen for a second, Sam," Sheik sighs and sits me down on my bed. I let her guide me there even though all I want to do is leave the room.

"Samus, we want you to be happy. Most of all we want you to be satisfied. But, let's be realistic, regardless of the fact whether its true or not that you have feelings for Link, at the end of the day, when all of this is over, you're going to have to choose. And we want to avoid heartbreak, wherever its coming from. It all starts with you trying not to have sex with Ike anymore. Simply put."

"Okay, first of all, I understand what you guys are trying to do, and its cute, I really appreciate it," I exchange looks with the three of them. "But I am not a little girl. And If I want to have sex with Ike that's what I'll do. Ike has actually been here to support me through this whole thing with Link, so even if I were to choose right now, it'd still be Ike. Yeah Link and I have tension, but that's probably because we both haven't had sex in a while, and I doubt it'll continue the next time I see him. You guys need not to worry about being the heartbreak police and just trust me, please, for once."

"We'll see about that," Sheik mutters to herself with a smirk. My stare continues to remain on her. "Anyway, you have a date with someone not too far from here, am I right?"

I lightly nudge my elbow against hers. "Its not a date, but I should get going before it gets too late."

I get up off of the bed and proceed to the door. "Are you guys gonna stay in here?"

"I know I'm too tired to even move," Sheik yawns with her arms stretched out and lays back onto the bed.

"I guess I'll go, I need to shower anyway," Palutena follows behind me. I peer behind Palutena and see Lucina knocked out on my beige sofa.

"Yeah, she's out," I mutter underneath my breath. I grab my room key and place it in my pocket while exiting the room. Palutena mumbles her goodbye with a yawn and makes her way down the hall to her room.

I take a deep breath and continue the opposite direction toward Link's room. Think.

What if he's already asleep? No, he isn't, I know him, he doesn't get the least bit of tired till it hits at least one a.m. In the morning.

What if he's not there? What if he's with the princess? I stop in my tracks.

Then I'll leave. I'll come another time, he shouldn't be disturbed while with the Princess, I'll just come tomorrow morning.

Get a grip, Samus. Why am I freaking out so bad? It's just a simple conversation with a guy that I've knowing for almost half of my life, what could possible be harder than..?

I continue to walk until I reach his door and knock twice awaiting him to open up. As soon as I hear the locks fidget, I take another deep breath hoping to respite my mental before I see him.

"Oh, hey Sam," I lift my eyes from the ground to meet his inviting gaze. His bangs are tousled and although the color has gotten darker, it still has its length. This time his hair is pulled back into a little bun behind his head. He is also... Shirtless.

My eyes quickly but surely scan over his abdominal and admire the chiseled features of his chest. His breathing is slow and even, like he's been relaxed all day. I can feel my heartbeat accelerate and I curse inwardly to myself for allowing myself to get so worked up over him like this.

'Yeah Link and I have tension, but that's probably because we both haven't had sex in a while'. Bullshit. I think I'm the only one who feels this tension, he looks completely fine to me.

"Samus?" He calls my name out again and my cheeks redden in embarrassment.

"Oh, uh... Sorry," Fucking control yourself, Sam.

"So, Lucina tells me that you stopped by my room today while I was away," I start. "I just wanted to know what it was that you wanted."

"What I want...?" There's a suggestive glint to his eyes and the words seem to hold a separate meaning. My foot begins to itch.

I take a full deep breath in.

"Oh yeah! That's right, it was about the Grand Games Tourney," He replies wholeheartedly. "I have some news you might be interested in. Would you like to come in?"

"Sure," This time he opens the door all the way and moves to the far right of his room to his nightstand in search of something. I step in and close the door behind me, taking a seat on the sofa.

He walks back over and takes a seat next to me holding out a little silver plate with words embellished into the center attached with both ends; gold ribbon.

"You're competing with me at the Grand Games Tournament," Link smiles genuinely at me and I hesitantly take the ribbon.

"B-but... How..?" I mutter staring at the silver plate. It reads 'competitor'.

"Well, when I went up to the head institutions office yesterday afternoon and told them that I still wanted to compete, they told me that it was too late, that the day before yesterday at midnight was the finalizing of all the players who were traveling." He explains.

"Then... How am I competing with you?" I ask looking at him confused.

"Well, since I kind of begged for them to let me back in the competition, they told me that I'd only go if we went as partners instead of individual competitors. That way, we'd both be competing but not on the individual circuit but on the team circuit."

Teammates? Link and I?

"Are you sure this is what you wanted, Link?" I ask a little cautious. "I mean, I could just let you go and compete in place of my name. "

"Sam, what are you talking about?" Link looks at me in disbelief and confusion. "I don't mind competing with you at the Grand Games. And do you not want to? I-I mean it's not too late to go back and remove the entry completely..."

"No! I-I... Link I'm sorry," I apologize and rub my face down with my hands. "I don't know what's come over me, I just..."

"What is it, Samus?" His tone of voice shifts and immediately become full of care and alertness.

"I-I..." I hesitate not knowing how to get the words out. "I-I don't want to seem like deadweight to you, Link."

His blue eyes grow extremely wide in shock. "Sam, you? Deadweight?"

Ugh. I don't understand why I lose such confidence when I'm around him. Like look what I just said. That doesn't even sound like me. Me? Being deadweight?!

"Look, I don't want you to freak out about all of this, but Samus if there's one thing that you are not, that is deadweight." Link says full of determination.

"Link..." I can barely even hear myself-

"Zelda is more deadweight than you ever will be," When he hears the words escape his mouth he quickly closed his mouth to say no more. "I-I didn't mean that..."

"It's fine," I intercede. "It is. Sorry I put you in that position."

"No, no..." He stops. "I said it because it's true and if we're being honest right now, there it is. I just don't know what to say to get you to know what you're capable of..." Link mumbles to himself looking at me intently.

"Thank you," I whisper.

"Huh?" His eyes meet mine anticipatingly.

"Thank you, Link," I repeat but much louder. "You really didn't have to go through all that trouble just because I said I wanted to compete... with you there..."

He grins. "Don't worry," he takes the small piece of ribbon from me and motions for me to turn around.

With his hands he bunches up my hair into a lose ponytail and ties the ribbon around it creating a knot.

I turn back around and smile knowingly at him.

"Now, we're officially in this together," he raises up his wrist and shows me his matching piece of ribbon tied on and flashes me a great smile.

This guy... He never ceases to amaze me. His kind words and his reassuring advice... I don't know what could possibly surpass this kind of care. Who would think that after 9 months away from someone that just in a matter of two days you'd be back to where you were at the pupil of your friendship. I guess it didn't matter where we were or how far the distance may be...

He'll always be there.

My hand instinctively, without me even knowing picks up his wrist and studies the small ribbon. I notice something different on his that wasn't on mine.

A little blue fairy charm hangs onto the edge of the silver plate. A small hole seems to have been minced out in the silver plate creating a small place where a small endless metal ring loops around it; there the fairy hangs, glistening brightly in the dimmed lighting from the moon behind us.

"It's beautiful isn't it..." I hear him mutter softly. I look up and meet his enchanting blue gaze.

"Just like you."

I inhale immediately as his words leave his mouth. He then leans in closer to me and my heart begins to race even faster.

It's going to happen.

No, no, no, no, no, no-

His hand gently reaches behind my neck and he pulls out a thin gold chain from underneath my shirt. He draws his fingers to the front of my face and pulls out my matching fairy necklace that always remained hidden within my shirts. My eyes grow wide as his fingers slowly comes round the chain and back to me.

He smirks and his fingers shift so that they're underneath my chin. My eyes never leave his. He gently grabs my chin, subtly caressing it and lifts my chin a little higher so that he could better access the necklace. Then his fingers slightly trail down my neck and rests on my collarbone. He picks up the fairy so delicately, I almost feel ticklish.

"I didn't know you still kept it..." His voice is low as he refers to the necklace. I can practically feel his strong chest rise and fall steadily against me. I lift my gaze from my lap and I meet his dark eyes, barely any blue allowing itself to show, overtaken by excitement and anxiety.

I lower my gaze to his fingers and without taking his eyes off me he mutters something inaudible. I stare at him intently, not knowing what his next move is going to be until he drops the necklace and brings his fingers up to my face again. His hand cups the bottom of my right jaw and instantly I become feverish. His thumb lightly crosses over my bottom lip as his gaze shifts constantly from my eyes to my lips. His thumb continues to caress my chin and without thinking my lips part and I let his thumb enter my mouth. He is taken by surprise but doesn't release his hand, instead, he shifts it in slowly more and more. My lips close around his thumb softly, slowly drawing his thumb in and out with my tongue until it finally slides out, along with a thin trail of saliva. His thumb quickly moves, almost as it has a mind of its own, and wraps the saliva onto his finger. I feel his breathing become hesitant. He then draws his thumb back and places it in his mouth. He sits there staring at me and I feel my teeth graze over my lips and tugs slightly. He's really close now, so the only thing he can do is look at my lips. I can see my reflection through his eyes. He mutters something very low but he's so close I am able to hear,"Can I...?"

Just a few inches closer...

Suddenly, we are interrupted by a rapid, loud knock coming from his door. Our heads snap in the direction of the sound.

I awkwardly scoot back a little noticing how relatively close we were, if someone were to come in, they would see...

"Liiiiink!" A screechy high pitched voice calls out from behind the door. "I know you're awake, open the door!"

The princess.

Shit, this is not going to turn out good.

Link curses under his breath and looks from the door to me. I make a motion for him to figure something out and go open the door.

"LINNNK!" She continues to yell through the door and bangs against the door loudly. At this rate, she'll wake everyone up that lives down this hallway.

Link immediately gets up cursing more underneath his breath and makes his way over to the door. He unlocks the door but only opens it a slither.

"Do you need anything Zelda?" His voice is low and un-inviting. Although I can barely hear what he's saying.

"I think I found a bug in my bed, and so I came to come sleep with you," she whines. He sighs and steps out of the door keeping the door open slightly.

"I can't, you know I can get in trouble if I let you sleep in my room too much like this," he tells her in a strong tone.

"But Liiiinnnkkk," she continues to whine loudly. "I don't want any creepy things in my bed and I want to come sleep with you."

He covers her mouth and shushes her. "Zelda, you're loud."

"Why won't you let me come in?" It seems she's trying to peer inside. I scoot over away from the door. "What are you hiding in there, why can't I go inside!"

"Zelda, please quiet down," Link steps closer to her and in front of the door. "Do you need me to come to your room and switch your blankets out for you?"

"Yes! And then can you sleep with me?" Zelda's tone shifts and the conversation becomes a lot more sensual.

"Uhh, yeah sure," Link responds hesitantly. "Now; go back to your room I'll be there in a minute."

"I'll be waiting," she purrs and then comes a sloppy wet sound.

He closes the door and turns back to me his face red with embarrassment.

"I think I should go now," I mumble. He scratches the back of his neck not knowing what to say.

"Uh... Sorry about that, I didn't mean for you to hear all of that... But yeah, thanks for stopping by."

I stand up and make my way over to the door and he opens it up once again.

"Training starts tomorrow, am I right?" I exit his room but turn around to meet his gaze.

"No, on Monday. You got Sunday to relax," He answers.

"Perfect," I give him a friendly smile and he returns it. "Goodnight Link."

He immediately takes me by surprise and raises his hand to remove a lock of hair from my face and tucks it behind my ear. I blush and become immediately interested in my toes.

"Goodnight Sam," A unique sparkle glistens in his eyes when he says my name. "Sleep tight." With that, he closes his room door and leaves me with his lingering words.

I walk back to my room silently, trying to emotionally recollect myself.

"Why..." I whisper to myself. He acts so different around me, in comparison to how he is when the Princess is around. He treats me like a delicate little flower that if stepped on might completely disintegrate. And the fact that we're going to be partners now makes it a lot harder for me because I'll be too busy concentrating on him and...

I heave a heavy sigh and unlock my room door once I reach it. I push it open to see Lucina and Sheik cuddled up on the bed. I drop my key on my dresser table and sluggishly walk toward the bed. I pry the two of them away from each other and lay in between them, my face connecting with a pillow. My body deflates, becoming engulfed in the sheets. Almost immediately as I begin to relax, I feel Sheik on my right turn into me and her right arm comes across my shoulder. She shifts in the bed mumbling in her sleep and finally brakes her movement when she is nearly on top of me. Lucina cuddles up by herself and continues to sleep.

Just close your eyes. I still couldn't sleep. Not after seeing him tonight, nothing will put my emotions to rest.

His touch was so gentle and delicate, I could feel my underwear dampen trough my shorts. The fact that he looks twice as sexier now doesn't help a single bit.

What if the Princess pushed herself inside the room even though he was telling her to leave, then what would I do? We would be caught, and it wouldn't be him that would give us away it'd be my face.

My body now aches to feel his lips... I think I might combust if I don't.

Was that foreplay? No...

Yes...?!

I groan lowly within the pillow, mentally frustrated.

"I knew it..." A small soft voice came from left and I lift my head up, startled.

"Knew what?" I turn toward Lucina and she turns toward me till we're facing each other.

"You still have feelings for Link..." Her eyes are glazed over due to the moon shining behind her in the window.

"I can't help it," I whisper closing my eyes, accepting the truth for what it is. "I don't even understand it myself, I thought I was over him..."

"Well for one, you thought wrong..." Lucina giggles quietly. "Plus, you guys have been together for a long time, feelings don't just subside like that."

"I know but... Ike..." I sigh.

"You know exactly what you did," Lucina tells me causing me to open my eyes. My brows furrow in confusion.

"What did I do?" I ask her.

She turns and lays on her back facing the ceiling placing her arms behind her neck.

"You substituted your feelings to another person for the time being that Link was gone."

"W...what?" I sit up trying to better understand what she's trying to say.

"Ike?" She smirks. "You don't really like him. While you weren't with Link your feelings for Link were channeled into Ike, so when Link comes back you're conflicted because now the feelings are returning back to the original person but you've now developed feelings for your substitute."

I sit and think about what she's telling me. There's no other was I can possibly understand what she's saying other than assuming that...

Ike is just a tool.

My brows furrow deeper and my eyes begin to water and when Lucina sees this, she sighs and turns to face the window again.

"It's true..." I hear her mutter again. "This is what Sheik, Palutena and I were trying to tell you. Ike really Likes you, but you only had feelings for him that you harbored for another person, not only that, but now you actually kinda like Ike."

"How did you know?" I sniffle, tears running down my cheeks. I feel terrible. Almost like I was intentionally trying to make it look like I didn't have any feelings for him that he was just my rebound. That once Link simultaneously comes back around I'll just a drop him in the trash. It makes me feel dirty inside.

"Because it's happening as we speak, Sam." She turns toward me a little. "You're crying, not because you're heartbroken, but because you honestly really have to choose now because you do have feelings for Link and Ike at the same time."

"What do I do?!" I exclaim without giving any regard to Sheik at all who is sleeping soundly beside me. "This is not going to be any easier, now that Link and I are going to be partners at the Grand Games. He tied this ribbon to my hair and told me that were in this together. He even has the fairy on his ribbon too. We-We nearly kissed..." I stop and there's silence for another minute.

"So it really is the both of you, huh," Lucina whispers but it's almost inaudible.

"What?" I ask quickly wanting to know what she meant.

"Nothing..." She sighs again and turns back toward the window. "Just try to get some rest."


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up to bright sunlight showering into my room; something that's common around this hotel thanks to my room placement. The small door that is connected below the window leading to the balcony is slightly pushed open and a soft breeze fills the room. I lift my head and squint to see who was out there.

"You're awake!" Arms attack me pinning me to the bed and legs swing around straddling themselves around my thighs. Sheik's long dirty blonde hair falls into my face and I meet her huge grin as she leans in close till our noses nearly touch.

"We want to go shopping today, you coming?" She appears to be extra hyper this morning. She's had coffee. Not a good thing...

"Ughh..." I groan and swat her away. "I'm barely awake and you're already making plans."

"Well... I don't want you running off with Ike again," She smirks. "Or Link. I heard you guys are partners in the Grand Games this year. That's going to be eventful." She winks.

Now, I shove her from on top of me and she laughs hysterically landing on the other half of the bed. "Not funny," I huff at her, but she doesn't cease laughing.

"Where's Lucy...?" I ask sitting up to look around my room.

"She's outside on the balcony," Sheik responds sitting up and sliding off the bed. "She has breakfast out there if you're hungry for some."

"Of course," I hop of the bed slowly and make my way over to the the bathroom to freshen up and put on a new pair of clothes. For the time being, I throw on a loose fitting halter top and a pair of black windbreaker shorts, and release my hair from the yellow ribbon.

Holding the piece of ribbon brings back wavering scenes from last night. I smile to myself, placing it among my other hair ties and form a middle part at the center of my scalp, combing through the rest of my hair with my fingers.

I make my way over to the door leading to the balcony. I creak open a small part of the door and walk out to see the round table filled with bacon, eggs, toast, Hawaiian rolls, Greek yogurt and fruit laying off to the side all covered underneath a plastic. This looks like a lot of breakfast for just three people. I look to the left and see Lucina lounging across the love-seat seriously infatuated in a book. When she notices me approaching she turns away from her page and smiles at me. "Morning sleepyhead."

"Hey," I greet her with a smile and a wave and take a seat on one of the patio chairs around the table next to Lucina. "Where'd all this come from?"

"Ever heard of room service?" Lucina returns to her book and I roll my eyes.

"I mean you really paid for all of this yourself?" I ask grabbing a piece of toast and smearing some butter into it.

"No, of course not, this is your money card I'm using." She pops a cherry into her mouth and grins at me. "Thank you."

"You little..." I glare at her and sigh thinking that I might as well eat most of it because it is my money. Can't go to waste.

"Do you feel better?" I hear her mutter quietly into her book. I look up hearing her words and return back to my piece of toast.

"Yeah... I guess..." I munch quietly, while pouring lemonade into my glass. "How else am I supposed to feel without feeling like total crap?"

"Oh, get outta that funk, it's not going to do you any good," Lucina slams her book shut and sits up to begin piling her plate with pancakes and eggs. Almost simultaneously, Sheik comes walks out to join us and so does Palutena.

"Morning Tina," I greet her with a smile and she returns the gesture by walking over and placing a soft kiss on my forehead, and blowing one to Lucina.

"Good morning Sam and Lucy," She takes a seat on the opposite side of me and Sheik takes the seat to my left.

"So whatsup, what were you guys talking about," Sheik takes a big bite from a pancake after dousing it in whipped cream and maple syrup. Palutena picks up a little bowl of yogurt and tosses fruits inside mixing it together.

"Do you think I should take Robin with me to the Grand Games?" Lucina asks us taking a sip of her cranberry juice.

"Well, you guys might be having sex all the time so I suggest not-" Sheik stops. "Someone's at the door." She gets up and walks back into the room to see who it is. A few seconds later Sheik walks back out with 3 more guests.

"Speak of the devil," Lucina smirks when she meets Robin's soft blue eyes from behind the door. He casually strides towards her and places a small kiss onto her lips and takes a seat next to her on the love-seat.

"Y'all are having quite a feast, aren't you," He snags a blackberry from the platter and pops it into his mouth. "You don't mind me do you, Samus?" His soft blue eyes swerve to me for approval.

"No, you're fine, please help yourself," I gesture for him to take more while taking another sip of my lemonade.

"Don't mind if I do," Shadow emerges from behind the door and proceeds to take my glass from my hand and drowns the whole thing in a few gulps.

Her burps. "My apologies," he leans down to me and places a kiss on my cheek. "There's more though."

"Why the fuck do you have to be so rude!" Sheik exclaims and snatches him by his shirt and pushes him against the railing. His eyes go wide in shock and he struggles to release from her grip but she doesn't let up.

"Babe! I'm sorry, but she said help yourself and you don't always have to attack me-"

"Not to her stuff, you dumb ass!" She lets him go and he straightens himself up and reaches for for an embrace but she gives him a look that says "don't try it".

"She's not even complaining..." He mumbles and takes a seat in Sheik's seat. She remains standing so he grabs her hand and pulls her onto his lap. "Aw, I made princess mad, I'm sorry..." He coos quietly to her and she continues to pout. He begins kissing her so I stop watching. I turn to my glass to pour another serving of lemonade when a hand reaches in front of me holding out a full glass.

I look up and lock eyes with Ike.

"Go on," My eyes instinct-fully lower down to his lips to which an enchanting smile lingers. My eyes then move back to his eyes. "Are you just going to keep me holding it here for you?"

"Oh.. Thanks Ike," I take the glass and set is aside. I lean closer to connect with his lips and he kisses me tenderly. My cheeks redden.

The kiss... it's chaste.

"How did you sleep last night," He mutters when we pull back. He's still close so I can smell his aftershave and cologne.

"I-I slept great," The conversation between Lucina and I still lingers in my brain as well, so I don't really know how to act. "Just wish you were there..."

"Ah, you could've just called..." His tone immediately changes and becomes seductive and I blush harder. He pauses and takes a step back.

"Is everything okay?" His face crumbles a bit with serious concern for the way I'm feeling. I smile and swat him away.

"I'm fine, just... nervous," I lie. He grins wide and chuckles.

"I know, I kind of have that effect on girls, I can't help it though," He shrugs and I shove him lightly away from me. He laughs.

Little does he know, the nerves aren't from what he thinks they're from. I just need to knock myself out of this situation by dealing with it while I'm alone so that I can avoid questions.

Ike takes a seat on the chair next to me and stretches his arms around my chair. I snuggle up underneath him beginning to shake off the feelings I had before, when I feel eyes on me. I turn to my left more and see Lucina staring worriedly at me. I try not to meet her gaze so that my demeanor wouldn't falter and my facade would play off better.

"What are you guys doing here?" Palutena asks continuing to eat her yogurt quietly.

"We're fucking, obviously, can't you see?" Shadow replies nonchalantly holding onto Sheik tightly. Sheik rolls her eyes.

"Shadow, I wasn't talking to you, so you can shut the hell up." Palutena fires back aggressively. "Anyways..."

"Cmon guys, let's try and get along," Robin advises. "There's no purpose to bickering over something that's not that important."

"The fact that you had to say that even makes this more of a drag," Lucina mumbles.

"I'm sorry, did someone say something?" Shadow looks about as though he hadn't just heard what Robin was saying.

"Yes, I actually was talking, but if you insist on being rude then continue, I however, will ignore you." His calm and soft demeanor refuses to crack.

"Cry me a river," Shadow rolls his eyes and turns his gaze to me. "So I had a word with my counterpart earlier today. He says you guys are partners now in the Grand Games. How interesting."

I try to avoid Ike's alerted eyes and look directly at Shadow. "Interesting you say? How so?"

"I mean considering that you guys were just literally on the verge of fucking right before our eyes during your final match, highlights what could possibly be in the near future for you," Shadow winks at me and I literally feel Ike tense beside me. "I always knew we had the same good taste."

"You're annoying," I reply. "And maybe you should try actually to qualify for the Grand Games before you try to determine what'll happen for someone else."

"I knew you'd say something like that," He chugs down the rest of Sheik's coffee. "Luckily, I was sure to not care at all about the Grand Games in itself."

"You guys are going to be partners?" Robin asks me. "That's a power duo right there if you ask me."

"Well no one asked," Shadow mutters under his breath.

"Yeah it is," Palutena agrees. "Did you suggest it?"

"No, actually..." I stop and try to remember exactly what he said. "He actually begged them to let us participate as partners even though we competed on the original circuit individually."

"Ohh... He begged didn't he?" Sheik smirks mirroring her partners exact expression. "I didn't know he wanted it that bad, he should've never gave it up."

"Something about him feeling like he cheated even though Samus sacrificed her last life for him," Lucina answers.

"You asked him?" I hear Ike speak for the first time to the whole group.

"Actually no, we talked to each other yesterday when he asked if Sam was home, the conversation just kinda went there."

"I personally think you'd guys do great as a team," Palutena says. "A lot of elements Link lacks in you can compensate for and vice Versa."

"Elements like what?" Shadow looks to me with a look that suggests something of the sexual nature.

"Hey careful now," Sheik taps Shadow on his shoulder with the same look on her face that her partner shares. "Ike might not approve of this conversation."

"Cut it out guys," I intercede. "You couldn't possibly be more childish than you are right now."

"No, it's alright," Ike smirks next to me and takes a sip from my lemonade. "It just says a lot about what they do when they're alone. I know there's one thing they don't do, and that's-"

"I told you that in confidence," Shadow seethes. "How dare you open your mouth and try to reveal-"

"Reveal what?" Palutena leans forward and rests her head or her folded palms. "There's obviously something that's there, and the band-aid's already off, you might as well tell us what it is."

"After all, we will find out," Lucina looks to Sheik with a mischievous look on her face.

"I'm so confused, I don't even know what's happening- wait, I think I need to use the bathroom really quickly," Sheik hurriedly hops off Shadow's lap and dashes inside the room.

"Uhh... I just forgot I left my car on, be right back quickly," Shadow is also up and out of the room.

"Well... That was quick..." Robin chuckles.

"So what's the plan for today?" Palutena asks. "Sheik mentioned something about the mall."

"Yeah let's do that," Lucina looks to Robin with pleading eyes. "Will you come?"

"Of course I will, buttercup," Robin gently kisses her on her lips and soon follows an Eskimo kiss.

Ike turns to me with a seductive look on his face. "I'm pretty sure we can do better than buttercup and the knight."

I scoot closer to him and rest my head against his shoulder and he runs his hand up and down my thigh. "I don't think I'm in the mood, really."

Ike faces me directly. "Are you sure everything's okay?"

"Yeah," I smile at him. "Just a little tired. I think I'll just stay home for this time and get my mind right for tomorrows training."

"Do you need me to stay with you?" Ike asks.

"No, no, by all means don't stay here with me, go out and have fun," I turn my head upward and kiss him. "I just want to be alone."

"Okay," He gives me a caring smile. "If you insist."

"Well, lets not waste anymore time," Palutena takes her bowl of fruit and yogurt and stands up walking toward the door. "Let's go ahead and get going before it gets crowded."

"You're right," Robin stands up and follows Palutena out the door holding Lucina's hand. Ike turns and gives me another long kiss on my lips.

"Stay safe, okay?" He smiles at me and I close my eyes and nestle in his arms. "I'll be back here as soon as we're through. And I'll be sure to pick something up for you."

"Thanks," He gets up and follows the rest of them out the balcony door and he closes it behind himself.

I remain sitting in my seat and immediately begin stuffing my face with breakfast so that I'll be able to get back to bed. In the middle of gobbling down a strawberry, I hear my doorbell ring.

I groan. I swear I can never just be left alone. I don't know, but the seven of them can be equally bothersome sometimes. I sluggishly get off my seat and walk inside to see who was at the door. I peek through and see Palutena grinning apologetically at me.

"What is it?" I ask her, confused, more like impatient.

"I left my phone," She dashes behind me and aims straight for the balcony doors. I sigh and leave the door open for her to leave and retreat to my bed. I pull the covers back and lay onto my bed, hiding myself underneath the sheets.

I hear the balcony door close and I assume Palutena has come back inside. I hear her footsteps hurriedly cross over my room, then it immediately halts.

"Sam?" I hear her call out my name and it makes me sink lower into the sheets. I really don't feel like talking...

He footsteps advance toward me slowly and the covers are pulled back slightly so that she can see my eyes.

"Hey... what we said yesterday..." She starts, looking away from me once she knows she has my attention. "We... I didn't mean to make you upset or anything... I hope you're not too bummed out about it."

"No..." I turn further away from her. "You're fine. I understand what you guys we're trying to do... It's okay, I just need time by myself is all."

"Okay..." She pauses and places a kiss on my head. "Stay safe, okay?"

"Thanks," She walks back over to the door and steps out, closing the door behind her.

I sigh heavily once I hear the door shut. Unknowingly, tears begin to roll down my cheeks.

Why am I crying? I couldn't even figure that out for myself. I guess my emotions are so out of control, I can't even determine how I'm feeling.

I hate this. I hate that I have to pretend to be strong and pretend that everything's okay. I really don't want to hurt anyone, and the opposite almost seems to be happening: I'm hurting myself.

When Lucina, Palutena, and Sheik told me that I'd have to choose, I didn't expect it to be something that would occur so quickly, almost the same night, I was faced with that dilemma. As I was assuming last night, the decision would've been Ike. I would've chosen to be with him.

And then I talked to him and... everything just shifted.

If Ike was truly my decision, then why did this morning feel so strange and abnormal? It wasn't like how I always feel when I'm around Ike. It was off. He even sensed it, I know. And he probably also knows it had something to do with Link, he most likely was afraid to say it.

Something has to be done, I just don't know when... or even how.

Immediately as my eyes were closing to fall asleep, a light knock is heard from my door.

"Ughhh," I groan loudly. Who could it possibly be now? I remove the covers and sluggishly make my way over to the door.

Without taking a minute to peek and see who it is, I undo my locks and swing open my door irritably and come face to face with Link.

I gasp, completely taken off guard my facial expression changes immediately and I feel my cheeks warm up at an intense speed. "L-Link..."

"Hey Sam," He smiles at me. "Sorry to disturb you so early." His cheeks redden a little and he scratches the back of his neck nervously. He's so cute, it's unbelievable.

"Uh-No, you're fine," I give him a small smile and relax a little, noticing that I was still tightly gripping the door nob. "What is it?" Damn, it seems whatever time it is, I still can't seem to completely rid myself of him.

"Well, I came by here to hand you this," He holds out a medium sized red booklet. "It's the rule book and agreement contract, I just received it this morning, and was about ready to head over and turn it in, I just need you to sign a few places."

"Oh, right," I take the booklet from him and examine the front cover. Usually, before the Grand Games, I would sign a yellow booklet for the individual circuit. Never in a million years would I expect to be signing a red one. I open the book and skim over the first page. "Huh, joint-damage eraser? What's that..." I mumble to myself. I really wonder just how different the team circuit would be from the individual, I might just have to sit and read it all to find out.

I look up at Link and meet his expectant gaze. "Oh! I'm sorry, would you like to come in? This definitely won't take long, I promise."

"Yes, sure," I move out of the way of the doorway and he walks in and takes a seat on the sofa. Still skimming over the first page, I close the door and turn around, my head still closed within the covers of the book.

Don't freak out. Don't be weird. Stay relaxed. So far so good. Stop blushing so much, dammit! I can't even get a grip on myself. I restrain myself from sighing aloud and look up to his eyes again. His non-wavering gaze sends tingling sensations thought my abdomen and palms.

"Did you eat any breakfast yet?" I ask him placing the book down on the coffee table. I at least have to look and sound like I'm under control.

"Nah, don't worry yourself, I'll be fine," He smiles genuinely at me and I return it with a smirk.

"Too late, it's only because I already have breakfast here, that now you'll have to eat something," I rush over to the balcony and pick up the tray of toast, butter and rolls and bring it in, placing it on the coffee table in front of him.

"Samus, really-" I then walk over to the small kitchen area and pull out a mug. Taking the kettle, I pour him a hot cup of coffee, add two packs of sugar and one creamer, just like he usually likes it. I walk back out and place it in front of him with a smile.

"There you go," I pick up a pen off of my dresser and retrieve the book, plopping myself onto the one seat across from him. "Eat up. I told you I wouldn't take long, but we both knew I was lying."

I see him staring at me in the corner of my eye and I turn and look at him. "What?"

He continues to smile at me without saying anything. I feel my cheeks begin to heat up slightly. Damnit, he obviously knows what he's doing...

"Haven't changed one bit," He says chuckling to himself. "Thank you."

"It's nothing, really. Now hurry before it gets cold." I open the book up again quickly and begin to read over it.

We sit like that, quietly, while he eats and I read, well also me asking him questions occasionally, if I don't understand something. The rules aren't hard to follow or avoid, they're just really pointless. Although, I still can't seem to shake the feeling that he-Link is literally sitting in my room right now. Just watching him take small bites of the rolls looks so satisfying. And then, every once in a while he'd look up at me and I'd literally feel his eyes all around me, whilst the whole time I'm pretending not to notice. There should be some kind of law that prohibits people from looking too sexy. It's just like asking for a slow and painful death. About half an hour later, Link is finished eating and is stretched out on the sofa and I am practically on the floor. Although we've simultaneously gotten more comfortable, my emotions are still wide awake, rapidly moving around in my stomach. It's almost making me sick to think about, or even look at him.

But why is it so intense?

"Who would ever summon their story mode foe in the middle of a battle, and even then so where would one even find the time to be summoning someone during battle?" I frown and flip the page dramatically.

"They just write it down there so they can just say that they mentioned it in the rule book, in case anyone were to do it." Link replies. "You might as well just skip through the next 27 pages because they're all like that."

"Thanks for the heads up, my brain would've been fried by then," I place the tip of the pen in my mouth habitually and chew softly. "I think I'm all finished then."

"Great, now all that's left is to confirm that you've read and understood the rules and regulations," Link stretches and sits upward. His shirt rises up just a tad and I'm able to see his chiseled abdomen. I divert my eyes away quickly before he notices. "I guess it did kind of take a little while."

I sign my name underneath his and add the date as instructed. I close the book with a smile. "There it is, all finished."

"Awesome, I guess it's time for me to go then..." He stands up hesitantly and I pause, my brain going into panic mode. I feel warmth fill my cheeks.

I really don't want him to go... Oh shut up, Sam, what are you thinking? What are you even going to do with him in here by yourself anyway?

We could talk, discuss game tactics formations and timing... We can do that at training tomorrow, Hey, what's the deal here?

He looks so good right now... White really is his color... Oh, shut up, Samus!

And his eyes are so blue... let's not also forget those luscious lips of his... A girl can only dream...

"Samus?" Link immediately takes me away from my thoughts and I look up to him expectantly, seeing his hand out in anticipation. "I need the book to turn it in..." He lightly chuckles.

"Oh!" I hurriedly hand him the book and I can feel my face turn extremely red with embarrassment, literally from checking him out right in front of his face. "You could've just said that... you know, before."

"Well, I kinda had asked 3 times already," He smirks and takes the book. "Just saying."

My eyebrows narrow in distaste. "O-K, now you don't have to get all perverse about it..." Still, he manages a smile out of me. "You're free to leave now."

"Free?" His tone is questionable as he walks toward the door. "You're making it seem like you were holding me hostage here."

"Maybe I was," I fold my arms across my chest following him toward the door. "I mean I did keep you in here to take advantage of you."

"Oh really?" He opens the door and turns back around to face me, a kittenish smirk etched over his lips. "But you didn't force me to do anything."

"I guess you could say it wasn't a traditional style of force I used on you, then," I then stop, standing directly in front of him. "Nonetheless, you did what I wanted you to do."

"What about what I want you to do, hmm?" He steps closer and leans against the door frame, also crossing his arms. "Why not I take you in and you be my hostage for a while?"

The words are really suggestive, therefore I don't know how to respond immediately. I sense his eyes travel down my face and stops just above my chin.

"See, that's not how things work around here," I simply reply. "This is my bedroom, not yours."

"We're teammates, remember?" He continues. "What's mine, is yours. Vice versa."

"There's a strong difference between teammate and roommate, teammate," I give him a small jab in his abdominal and he laughs. I couldn't help but grin as well.

"I guess you caught me there," He grins widely at me. "I guess I'll leave you now to your solitude." His hand reaches under my chin and he lifts my head up slightly, caressing my chin softly. "Stay safe, okay?"

Somehow, of all the times this has been said to me, his words, his voice seems way more reassuring.

"And you be safe," I reply.

He releases his hand and gives me one last smile. "See you around, Sam."

I push the door so that it'll close and sluggishly walk over to the balcony door to lock it. After the doors are locked turn around slightly lean against it. Slowly, I allow myself to fall against the door and sink to the floor.

"I need to tell him," I can't let him keep doing this to me.

He knows what he's doing too... He has a girlfriend and he's flat out flirting with me. What is any of this supposed to mean? If he really did still harbor feelings for me, he should work to end things with the princess first. I don't want to be that person to ruin things for them.

I don't even care if they weren't stable before we started talking again... It's not in my place to barge into their relationship, broken or mended.

Plus I don't fully understand it, but this is the most intensely I've felt for Link. 2 years together and I never, not once felt mediocre to him or was even the slightest bit timid. Not even talking about how much I'm blushing. I'm acting as though I've just met him. It's different now, I just don't know why.

Then again, when he does flirt with me, I can't stop it. I want him to continue but it's just not right. Ever since we saw each other that day of the last match, it's been subtle touches here, long stares there, all at close proximity, now I don't know what to think or feel.

It feels so good... Yeah, at the expense of crying at night over Ike and him.

It feels right... I guess I can't deny that.

I decide that now, I probably won't be disturbed for the next 2 hours and sluggishly stand up to walk to my bed. I didn't take not one single step and the door rattles, urgently. I jump taken by surprise and turn around to open and see who it is.

Immediately as I undo the locks, Link's face emerges from behind the door.

"Sam, I can't take this anymore," He steps inside and shuts the door, then pulls me up against it his hands pinning my wrists to the door. My eyes widen, completely taken by surprise. "Link..!"

"I..." His gaze travels to my lips and this time he doesn't try to hide it. "You..."

"Link..." I mumble. What has come over him? Why did he come back and why is he holding me like this?!

"I can't take this anymore, Samus," he releases one hand and begins caressing my lips. "I want you..."

Almost immediately, without giving me time to register, his lips are against mine, so fast that I can't even think straight to relax my mind, but my body automatically gives in and despite my confusion and uneasiness my lips move in sync with his. He releases my other hand and his hands trail down to my waist and he wraps them around tightly. My arms, robotically move around his neck and simultaneously pulls him in deeper.

I feel his tongue slowly enter my mouth and I can't help but moan quietly against his lips. He slowly lifts me up my back still against the wall and shifts his arms to underneath my thighs, hoisting me up. He continues to attack my lips with so much rage and desire and it stimulates me more, that he wants this... He wants me, just like I had imagined.

This is all I've ever wanted. Was for him to want me.

"I've waited too long," I feel him speak underneath the kiss. Yet he never ceases to break the lock between our lips. "You..." He looks down lower at my chest and my cheeks begin to heat up. "When did your breasts get so big?" I giggle, not knowing what to make of his bewildered expression. He winks at me and grins teasingly. I then take his head in my hands and resume kissing him.

My hands move from around his neck and into his hair, my fingers massaging it gently as we continue to kiss passionately.

The both of us run out of air, the same time and we both look up to meet each other's gaze, breathing heavily. I feel my mouth slowly form a grin and he also grins in response. I laugh at his hazy expression, and he closes his eyes and leans into my neck, chuckling softly. I continuously run my fingers through his hair and his breathing slows down. I feel his lips graze my neck and my hold on him tightens. His lips trail around my neck and his arms hoist me back up against the door. His tongue trails up my neck and lightly flicks over my earlobe causing me to push myself up against him. A soft moan escapes my lips and he grunts. "Fuck."

He grabs hold of my thighs tightly and lifts me up onto him, and his lips meet mine again. His lips move softly on top of mine and my teeth grazes his bottom lip, nibbling slightly. I can feel a smile rise underneath my lips so I pull back and smirk at him.

"What's so funny?" I ask.

He gently walks me over to my bed and lays me down. Without hesitating, he pushes me down onto my bed and straddles himself on top of me. He moves on and places another kiss against my lips and pulls back continuing to smile at me. "You're just perfect."

I gape at his words, they make me want to...

"Link," I'm surprised at the tone that I called his name in. At this moment I can't even really control my words. They follow out unknowingly. Even his eyes have a different look in them. It scares the both of us. "I want you..." His gaze now becomes expectant. "I-I want you to..." My cheeks go red, feeling nervous for thinking about such things to begin with. I look away from his intense blue eyes and hope that he'll just ignore that I began speaking. Instead, Link places his index finger on my lips and smiles.

"Shh... You don't have to say anything."

—-•—

"Samus!" I hear someone calling me. "Samus, we're back!"

My eyes jolt open and I find myself on top of my bed covered with sheets and blankets, almost as if I was tucked in. I look around hastily, and my heartbeat increases in momentum.

Was that all just a dream?

"Sam?" Lucina's indigo eyes peer at me in scrutiny. "Are you alright, why do you look so frightened?"

I raise my right hand to my lips and feel a tingly sensation about it. It's almost as though the touch of his lips are still lingering on top of mine.

Sheik and Palutena come around to get a better look at me. "What's wrong? Did anything happen while we were gone?"

"Uhh..." I look around my surroundings and spot the place where Link was sitting. The mug of coffee was still there along with the opened containers of butter. I look back over to the front door.

The three of them follow my gaze to the coffee table. Sheik frowns. "That's wierd, Sam, you don't drink coffee, and I already had my share."

Palutena walks over to the mug and picks it up. She takes a small sip and her eyebrows narrow in distaste. "Ugh, It's bitter. Like only 2 sugars are in here."

"Hm," Lucina looks back over at me. "Did Link come by here?"

"Uhh..." I don't even know if that was a dream or not. "I-I don't know..."

Sheik walks over to Palutena and slides her fingers across the couch where he was previously sitting. She places her fingers to her nose. "Yep, he was definitely here, I can still smell him."

"Sam, what do you mean you don't know?" Lucina turns back to me. I push the covers away slowly and notice that my clothes were still on. Confusion sweeps over my face and my heartbeat increases dramatically, again.

"I mean..." I pause and look back at Lucina. "I believe he came here, to let me sign the red book of agreement. Then, he left and..."

"And?" Sheik urges me to press on.

"And, he came back... and we-" I stop myself. I don't know how this is going to sound coming out of my mouth. "He..."

"Samus... did you guys...?!" Palutena's eyes grow alarmingly wide. "Please don't tell me-"

"No! W-We didn't... At least that's what I think.." I rub my palms dramatically over my forehead trying to decipher what really happened.

"Samus, you're not making any sense," Sheik shakes her head and crosses her arms over her chest. "Are you saying that you blacked out or something?"

"No, well..." I stop again, shaking my head.

"Just spit it out already!" Lucina shouts.

"Well, He came back and he held me against the door and started kissing me, mentioning something about him waiting too long and not being able to take it anymore," I feel my cheeks redden imagining the events again.

Sheik smirks. "Sure does sound like Link too."

"And so, we were kissing and then we were laughing... Then he picked me up and we were on the bed. I woke up to you guys calling my name except, I don't remember tucking myself in bed or even falling asleep. And then him placing his hand over my lips telling me not to say anything."

"There, that's where I presume the sex was supposed to follow," Lucina waves at me to discontinue and I close my mouth and wait to hear their response on what they think happened.

"Why don't we just call and ask him?" Sheik suggests flabbergasted. "He should know what actually happened, if not then we've got to assume that Sam's hallucinating."

My eyes widen in alarm and I feel my cheeks turn even redder. "No! We're not going to ask him, are you insane?!" Lucina looks worriedly in my direction and places her hand on top of mine.

"Relax Samus, no ones asking Link anything," She looks at me sternly then quickly turns to Sheik and gives her an aggressive glare. "Are you literally trying to kill her? You already know how she acts when we simply just propose to invite him over."

Sheik simply shrugs. "You guys are making this extremely difficult."

Instantly, the door opens and Robin, Shadow, and Ike walk into the room... With LINK?!

I let out a small squeak and speedily dive back underneath the covers. What is he doing here again?! I can barely control myself from blushing when he's not even here now he's causally strolling in with my friends?!

"Link!" Palutena exclaims surprised. "W-what are you doing here?"

"Oh, hello Tina! It's been a while..." He casually chuckles and I can practically see him nervously scratching the back of his neck.

"Where's Sam?" I hear Ike's voice slowly approach the bed and I scoot down lower so that I'm completely invisible.

"Why do you need her?" I feel Lucina move slightly across my body, I'm assuming to block Ike from getting any closer.

"Uhh... Because she's my girlfriend and I haven't seen her in four hours." His tone is snarky but her body shifts a little and I feel a strong hand weighing down on my hip. "Sam, are you awake?"

"Gosh, can't a girl rest nowadays?" Sheik sneers from across the room. "All you guys are the same, 'girlfriend this', 'girlfriend that', do you ever not once think about how we feel being canoodled all the time?"

"I mean, can we help it?" Shadow replies and I can literally imagine his smirk from underneath the sheets.

"Anyways, Ike, please see if Sam is doing alright," Robin's voice also comes closer. "I really hope she hasn't come down with anything when training is literally tomorrow."

"Are you sure about what you said, Fairyboy?" Ike's voice is low and harsh. "It's rare for her to just be passing out."

I passed out?!

"I'm positive," Link's voice confirms. "And I would prefer you call me by my name, if you don't mind."

"Cut the chivalry, I could care less about your existence entirely." Ike responds even colder.

"And you call yourself her boyfriend, I can't believe she'd stoop that low to a person like you." Link manages almost in mumbles to even out the atmosphere between them by bringing his tone two times colder than before.

"What did you just say?" Ike gets loud immediately and I cringe underneath the sheets.

"Can you guys cut it out for just a second?" Lucina's voice intervenes between the two of them. "The both of you are childish, just shut up. Now Link can you please tell us what you said happened to Samus while you we gone."

Link clears his throat. "I apologize for that. But I will explain. I came to her room after you guys were gone I suppose, and I gave her the red book to sign. She signed it and then I was out but I had to come back to get my ribbon that I left on her sofa. So when I came back knocking, she opened the door looked at me and then passes out right in front of me."

"Hmph... That really is weird," Palutena responds.

"I know exactly what happened," Sheik also adds.

"Really?" Links asks. "Then what?"

"Just one question: was anything weird about her? Did she look hazy, or a bit red in the face? Or just red everywhere?"

"Well, she did look a little flushed on her cheeks... Now that you mention it."

Sheik laughs quietly. "As I assumed. She'll be fine, I know that for sure."

"What happened?" Robin asks Sheik, apparently not understanding. "I don't understand."

"Don't worry about her, is all," Sheik says. "She's completely okay."

Lucina sighs dramatically. "Yeah, guys don't worry about her. She'll be fine. But if you don't mind, I'm going to ask you all to leave so that she can rest."

I feel Ike's hand being removed from me and a few steps echo away. "Please take care of her, whatever the situation may be." Ike's voice says to Lucina.

"Yeah yeah," I hear their footsteps disappear and the door shut close. I slowly peek from underneath the cover, warily.

"Relax they're gone," Sheik walks up to the bed and also lays down on top of the sheets. "You can stop hiding now."

I remove the covers from on top of myself and sigh heavily. I still am not able to wrap my head around what Link had said happened when he came back. I passed out? Was I that overworked just from him..? Now that I think about it, I really wasn't able to control myself completely while he was in my room, so when he came back it was almost like my heart gave out or something. Then that dream followed. It was so... Vivid it almost seemed too real. Wait-!

"Okay, so I think I'm the only one that's really confused here so can one of you guys explain to me what really happened?" Palutena muddles.

"She just overdid it," Sheik answers raising an eyebrow at me. I turn away and cross my arms over my chest. Humph. As if she'd know.

"She probably started overthinking everything whenever he left, or perhaps while he was still here. So when he came back it was like her emotions couldn't really rest so she went into overdrive," Lucina replies to Palutena looking at me bewildered. "You could've avoided all of this by just coming with us to the mall, Sam."

"Yeah, I mean look at you, you're still red as a tomato," Palutena frowns. "You need to relax, Link will not kill you. I don't even understand how you can still act like this after dating him for 2 years."

"Well, excuse me, he doesn't look the same way he did 2 years ago! Plus... He's... He's...". I clench my fists and take a deep breath.

"Neither do you but you don't see him fumbling and blushing every chance he gets when he sees you."

"You think I want to be this flustered every time he's around?! This is stressing me out," I snatch a pillow from behind me and groan loudly into it. What is wrong with me?! I need to get myself together! We're competing together and if I can't handle this then we will not be successful at all.

"I know one thing," Sheik mumbles from beside me. "You sure aren't like this when Ike is around."

I pause. Palutena shoots Sheik an instant glare. "You don't have to keep throwing that in her face every time, you know."

"No, it's fine," I bow my head and feel my eyes sting. "It's only because it's true that she's saying it. It'll do nothing but harm the both of us if I keep continuing to deny it."

"Sam..." Lucina places her hand on top of mine again.

"Don't worry about me anymore," I tell the three of them. "The grand games is in two weeks, I have no more time to waste on frivolous things such as romance and emotions right now. Regardless of the fact that Link is my partner, I'll be sure to make my mark and to even work harder than him. It doesn't make me too happy that I allowed myself to lose that final match. I carelessly let my emotions get the best of me and ruin my performance. This time around, I refuse to make it the same." I look up and smile at them confidently. The words came out unknowingly, but somehow they give me a little bit of courage. "Failure is not an option."


	5. Chapter 5

I quickly turn down the nob to the shower head and exit, wrapping my towel around torso. I walk up to my bathroom mirror and begin to simultaneously fix my hair up into a ponytail and tie my ribbon around on it. I completely dry myself off and put on my undergarments, then also proceeding to put on my training uniform which consisted of a black pair of spandex and a black low turtleneck long-sleeve. I take one good look in my bathroom mirror and smile confidently at my reflection.

Today is the first day of training, but last night I vowed to act as though today was the first round of the actual Grand Games. I don't intend on slacking at all these next few weeks ahead and I also plan on mentally strengthening myself as well. The best ways to start are always with a positive attitude.

Last night, I tried my hardest to forget about the whole day, as though it never happened. I did have a little trouble, considering even the dream I had, but I was able to get enough rest to wake up early this morning in time for me to also grab a good breakfast. As if on cue, my doorbell rings.

I walk out of my bathroom and make my way over to the front door to answer the room service. I open the door and smile at the short blonde haired lady who rolls in a silver cart full of breakfast choices. She offers me a full platter but I decline, thinking that I shouldn't take too much that'll weigh me down. I decide on 3 slices of buttered toast and a fruit smoothie made with all organic fruits and vegetables.

"Good luck on your training today, Ms. Aran," She smiles genuinely at me and I reach in my pocket to pull out a $20 bill.

"Thanks so much for everything," I reply handing her the twenty and closing the door to finish prepping.

I stuff my duffle bag with an extra pair of clothes, socks and shoes, along with personal hygiene necessities and a few energy bars and 6 bottles of water. Concluding that I had everything I could possibly need, I sit down in front of my coffee table and begin to eat my breakfast.

I guess you can say, I'm a little anxious to see what'll happen today. I'm not necessarily giddy about starting training today, but the thought of exercising my muscles and stretching out my limbs does sound like pure heaven to me. I really love to exercise, feeling sore is the best feeling in the world to me. Just the thought of being completely worn out because of hard work and heavy lifting puts me in a sweet mood. I'm looking forward to that today, at least.

I'm also deciding not to overthink things when I'm around Link. Apparently, that seems to be the issue nowadays whenever he's around or when he's mentioned in conversation. It's secretly really embarrassing because I'm not one to be blushing mad crazy around guys or even appear mushy and gushy at all. So it kind of takes away a little bit of my pride, if you know what I mean. I'm hoping also to redefine myself once I start training again. Maybe it's this lack of activity that's been keeping my brain at 100. If that's the case, then this is exactly what I need to cure me.

I'm nearly finished with my last piece of toast when my door knocks. I dust my hands from the crumbs and slide on my gloves.

Assuming it's Link, here to come by and pick me up, I put on my shoes and grab my cell phone and duffle bag, ready to head out.

"Ready to go?" He asks me once I open the door. I turn off all my lights and turn off the TV screen and look to him and nod. I take my key and lock the door behind me, then place it on the side of my duffle bag.

We walk silently to the end of the hallway reaching the elevator to take us down to the main floor. While waiting on the doors to open, Link turns to me and smiles.

Okay, don't blush, don't panic, just be normal and have a normal conversation. Look there I go overthinking like I said I wouldn't. Just go with the flow. Right.

"How did you sleep last night?" He asks me obviously concerned about my health along with the recent events that has occurred.

"I slept just fine," I return his smile and he nods his head in approval. "Uh... Lucina and the others told me what happened yesterday afternoon and, I... Uh, just wanted to say thank you for helping me out back there."

He immediately looks confused. "Thanks? For...?"

My eyebrows narrow, a little thrown off. "Yeah... When I had passed out?"

He grins, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "Oh yeah, that. It was nothing. I had no choice, really."

Huh... That was weird. It was nothing? It's almost as if he didn't remember. For what it's worth, it's probably for the best, still it kind of weirds me out.

I mean he couldn't have possibly forgotten about me passing out right in front of him and him gracefully carrying me off to my bed without having to think twice about it? It's not at all something you'd just forget-C'mon, like I know I have some type of affect on him... Right? My eyes slither to my right where he stands next to me and I feel my right eye twitch. Unbelievable.

The elevator dings and the doors open. We step inside and he presses the button for floor one. I turn to him when the doors close. "And how did you sleep last night?"

"Oh, I slept well, thanks for asking," he replies with a smile and turns back to face the elevator doors.

We stand there, kind of in a light atmosphere of silence and wait until we reach the bottom of the hotel. The air is a little tense, in terms of awkwardness, but I guess it's just me. I'm still not able to fully shake off the dream I had yesterday of the two of us. It just seemed too real for it to not be true. Would now be the perfect time to ask?

"Alrighty, let's go," the doors open and I follow him out of the hotel and into his black corvette parked outside in the front of the building. I almost forgot that Link has a special taste in cars, especially cars that run on a lot of horsepower. I remember him saying in the past that's cars operate just like horses so he made sure to get one to match his prior mode of transportation. I always thought it was kinda weird, but the cars looked nice. He starts the engine and speeds off in the direction the institution's training grounds.

When we reach the location, he parks the car and we both exit the vehicle heading up the stairs to the front doors. My phone buzzes from the side of my duffle bag and I unzip it to see the notification.

' _Do well today! Kick some ass!'_

It's from Sheik. I smile to myself imagining her saying the words. I simply reply to her that I'll be meeting her after training and turn on airplane mode my cell phone to avoid any other distractions. In the corner of my eye I see Link watching me, but I quickly put my phone away and advance toward the doors.

We walk in and immediately hear grunting noises up above us on the next floor. It seems as though the other teams have already started to warm up. Link turns to me and hands me my locker key. "I'll go sign us in, you can go on ahead and put away your things and meet me upstairs."

I nod with a smirk. "The cardio room, you mean? Don't worry we'll go a little easy since it's the first day."

He nervously chuckles. "Yeah, yeah, that. And yes, please don't try to kill me."

I shake my head disapprovingly and take my key and begin to head up the stairs. It seems as though Link hasn't changed a bit when it comes to cardio workouts for stamina. I almost can't wait to see him cringing underneath the fast-pace movement of the warm ups I have planned for us. Then again, you can't always rely on weight training to always get in shape. With all the muscle he has now, he should've been able to realize that.

When I reach the locker rooms, I make my way over to the locker number embroidered on my key and set my duffle bag on the bench in front of it. I pull out two water bottles along with my cellphone and earplugs and unroll a towel on the nearby shelf. I hang up my other clothes in my locker and place all of my other belongings inside as well. I then strap on my tune belt, ready to head out. The door opens to the locker room and Link walks in holding his own key. He opens the locker on my right and also begins to unload his things. I guess that's one thing that I really despise about this institution, they don't like to invest in separate locker rooms for the females and the males. Which means, the showers are in the same place, but good thing each of them have doors and walls surrounding them or otherwise I'd propose waiting till I reach home to take a shower. I place my key, in my shirt and turn to Link.

"Did they give us a scheduled work out plan or something like that?" I ask him as I shut my locker door and retie my shoes.

"Yeah," he hands me a sheet of paper that's schedules when we're supposed to meet up at each training ground. It appears we have the first 3 hours of team training, the next two hours after that 1 hour for lunch and stretching period and then the last 4 are combat matches. I smirk.

"I'm definitely looking to forward to 1:30 then," Link turns in my direction and also takes a look at the paper.

"We'll be fighting each other again, huh," he looks at me mischievously and I snatch the paper away from his view and fold it up and placing it on top of his duffle bag.

"Don't think I won't fight back this time around, fairyboy," I reply with a smirk. His eyes widen in surprise but his expression is unfaltering.

"That's not playing nice, Sam, we're teammates remember?" His eyes linger a little above my chin but I press on as though I didn't notice.

"Are you gonna cry about it?" I swing my towel around my shoulder and grab my water bottles, heading in the direction of the door. "Hurry, you got 4 minutes, I'm not going to wait for you after that."

"I'll be out there in a sec," he calls out. I open the door and make my way over to the cardio room, plugging in my earbuds. Once I reach the room, I turn on a treadmill and begin warming up at a Medium paced jog going at the speed of 6 miles per hour. 7 minutes pass and Link is on the treadmill next to me jogging at the same pace. Within another 12 minutes he's already panting.

"C'mon, so soon?" I sneer with a smirk. He slides me a sideways look and I laugh wholeheartedly. "I would've thought that after all this time had passed you would at least try to catch up with me."

"I'm always trying to keep up with you," He replies stepping his speed up a notch. "At least remember that bit."

After another 5 minutes, we both decide that it's now time to actually get to the working out part.

"Okay," I pull out my phone and search through my notes while he dries himself off with his towel. "We're going to complete 4 reps of this workout I have right here." Immediately as I speak the last word, Link gives me a sad look. "What?"

"Are you really trying to get rid of me before we even start competing?" Link asks exasperated. "I thought you said were going to take it lightly since its the first day."

"Oh c'mon, Link, we both knew I was lying," I raise my eyebrows at him with an innocent smile and he sighs heavily.

"Alright, let's see what you've got," I move my phone around to show him the little note I made for this weeks workouts.

"Don't worry, this is only for this week. We won't need to do as much exercising after we get back in shape, alright?"

"Yeah, right, got it."

"Okay, we have 10 burpees, 20 push ups, 30 crunches, 40 squats, and 50 second planks. We'll do them together so that you and I can go at the same pace."

"Cool, let's get started." We move to the back of the cardio room in front of the huge window, where there's a vast amount of empty space. I quickly drown a full water bottle and pat away the little beads of sweat across my forehead with my towel. In the corner of my eye, I see him watching me and I slowly feel my cheeks begin to heat up.

Relax Sam, damnit. I quickly shake away the emotions that were nearly rising to the surface and throw my things off to the side. "Ready?" He nods and stands 6 feet away, facing me.

We begin the first rep, and surprisingly, Link is keeping up with my pace. I start off at a medium sore so we can slowly get faster as time passes, within 9 minutes we're done with the first rep and is moving on to the second.

"Hey, you're doing pretty good," I complement him with a smile. "I didn't expect us to get done that quick on the first one."

"Well, let's not be too quick to say that just yet," He replies shrugging. "C'mon let's continue."

We finish all 4 reps within 50 minutes and I give Link a high five when we're done. "Great job, teammate!" I pick up my water bottle and towel, and strap my phone back onto my arm wrapping the earbuds around my ears.

He grins. "Now can we move on to the fun stuff."

"Do we have to do weights Link?" I whine a little. "Let's take a small break, first.

"Nope," he grabs my hand and pulls me quickly out of the cardio room down the hall to the weight room. "It's my turn now, so you better not fall behind this time."

"Link..!" I try to protest some more but he doesn't budge. When we reach the door he tries to open it but it appears to be locked. "Hah! In your face, now I don't have to lift anything."

"Huh... I wonder why it's locked," Link mutters underneath his breath. The lights still appear to be on, looking through the window but there's a plant covering the small window so we can't really see.

"Hey! Link, Samus!" The both of our heads turn to the right from where we heard our names being called. It's Lloyd!

"Hey Lloyd!" I greet him with a smile. "What are you doing here?"

"Just coming by to check up on the teams we have this year. Hey, I didn't know the both of you got back together!" He looks down and motions to Links hand in mine. We both look down as well to see what he's referring to and pull back our hands immediately once we realize.

"Uhh, no," Link scratches the back of his neck with his left hand. "We're not together. W-Well, we are together just, not like that. We're just competing on the same team, is all."

"Yeah," I mumble nervously, feeling my cheeks redden by the minute.

"Huh, Samus, I didn't see you really for much of the team type."

I smile at him. "Yeah, well here I am." I mutter.

"Well I guess since the two of you aren't together anymore, Its been a while, Samus. Maybe we can meet up tonight?"

I blush hard at his request. Damn, I did not see this coming, especially not in front of him. "Uh... Maybe some other time, It's a little hectic right now with the Grand Games coming up... But I appreciate you for asking." He nods in acceptance and begins walking past us.

"Well, I gotta run up and catch a few people so good luck to the both of you. Goodbye Samus." He calls out taking off.

I exhale heavily when he's out of earshot and turn to Link who's trying desperately to undo the lock on the door to the room.

"Why don't we just go and ask for a key?" I propose. "It's much easier than, well... this." He doesn't respond and budges a little more. "Link...?"

"You know what, let's not even worry about it." He sighs, not making eye contact. "We might as well take that break you were talking about now." He reaches in his pocket and tosses me an energy bar. "Go ahead and have that one, I'm going to go look for a vending machine around here somewhere, so I'll be right back."

"Okay..." He takes off in the opposite direction from which we came, my eyes staring heavily at his back.

All of a sudden, the atmosphere is different and Link is a little chillier than before. I can sense it in his tone. It lacks that ebullient vibe that once previously resided in his behavior. I wonder what's gotten into him.

I walk over to the huge window and sit cross-cross on the ground, looking outward into the city. For just the second floor, we look pretty high up. I tear off the wrap around the bar and eat itcslowly, pondering over my thoughts.

So far the day has been very easy going and actually kinda fun. Link and I have been cooperating well and if it's too soon as of right now to truly tell, I think we could actually have a shot at winning this year at the Grand Games. We share a unique dynamic so I guess picking him to be a partner wasn't all such a bad idea. But still if I had either Palutena, Lucina or Sheik to be my partner, we probably would've already been done with the first half of the workout and be doing it all over again. But I guess with Link it requires a little more because him being strong now doesn't exclude the fact that he is still a guy. He won't really find any purpose in doing all of these workouts, but it's nice that he's still willing to cope with me and do them anyway, unlike his counterpart who's rude, arrogant and very lackadaisical when it comes to working out, especially when he believes it serves no purpose. The only person who would really be able to make Shadow do anything related to working out is most definitely Sheik. Her no-bullshit attitude is real trouble when it pertains to Shadow's wellbeing. I guess you can say that they equally have a weird but special way of looking out for each other.

"Well, well, what a surprise," I hear a voice sneer from behind me. I instantly get up and turn around facing Princess Zelda. I smile, but its definitely not genuine.

"Hello Princess," I greet. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh stop, don't act like you don't know. I'm here to see my boyfriend. Where is he?" She looks around while simultaneously looking me up and down.

"Uh, he's not here right now, he went to go grab a snack. From the direction you came in, you should've met him on your way here..." If she didn't find him there, where could he be?

"Oh well, why don't I just talk with you until he gets back? Plus, I'd like to watch you guys do what you do in here," She pulls out a folding fan and begins to fan herself. "It's unbelievably hot in here and it smells like sweat."

"Well... This the training grounds..." I mumble underneath my breath not really finding the purpose of engaging with her here.

"I guess since we're both here now, I can tell you what I've been wanting to tell you for some time now," She looks directly at me, her eyes filled with malice.

Taken aback, I now realize she's probably going to tell me something of the threatening nature, more specifically, Link.

"As you are well aware, you've probably heard from someone by now, Link and I are planning on leaving the institution for good to get married and start our family." She languidly advances toward me till she's directly in front of my face. "I've been watching you lately, Samus. So I see what you've been trying to do."

"Huh, what are you talking about?" I ask super confounded.

"I don't want you anywhere near my boyfriend, do you understand? I don't care about whatever partnership you're having for this competition but have all the little fun you want to now. As soon as he's finished with these silly games he's coming home with me. And I do not need you to be interfering between our relationship. He doesn't not want you. Got it?"

I stare directly into her eyes, not at all moved by whatever she said to make herself feel better. Instead, I smile at her.

"Are you trying to mock me?" She leans in closer her words, seeping full of poison.

"Excuse me, Princess, but I think you're really confused here," I simply reply to her. "Are you really sure he doesn't want me? If you've been 'watching me' you should've been able to pick up a few things by now, am I right?"

"You filthy bitch!" She practically lunges at me but her hands are caught immediately as she raised them up. I look behind her and see Link's inexplicable expression staring right at me. Instantly, I feel my heart drop. Did he hear what I said?

The Princess continues to struggle quickly. "Let me go! I'm going to wreck you, Samus Aran!"

"Princess, calm down," Link's voice is soothing and almost immediately she begins to stop wiggling. "What happened here?"

"Liiiiiinnnnnk," she whines, turning around to face him. "Link, I was only trying to defend you, when this stupid Aran chick had the nerve to want to attack me!"

"Princess, obviously, you were the one about to attack her first," Link sighs and releases her hands but she then clings heavily to his shirt.

"Liiiiink! Link, baby, can you take me home?" She continues and I almost want to plug in my earbuds to tune out her high pitched whining.

"Zelda, you know I can't do that right now," His tone is nearly becoming bored. "I have to finish training here and I nearly have an hour left before Lunchtime. I will call you then, please just go home by yourself, okay?"

"Okay," She then stands on her tippy toes and begins kissing Link. She repeatedly makes a sloppy, wet, noise while eyeing me sideways. I turn my face, completely disgusted while they continue their little make our session in front of me. She wraps her arms around his neck and continues to glare at me, but Link slowly begins to push her back.

"I will call you, so go ahead and get going, okay?" He releases from her and she begins to skip away.

"Bye! I love you!" She blows him a kiss and he just turns and smiles wearily in her direction. When she's gone, out of the corner of my eye I see him using his sleeve to wipe off saliva from around his lips. My gaze continuously remains on his face even when he stops moving.

His lips look so soft and gentle. Ugh, I'm so jealous, I want to be able to kiss him too. God, he's just so sexy.

He then turns back to me looking expectantly. I immediately blush, realizing that I was just checking him out. I turn away from his gaze instantly and he clears his throat as well.

"Are you alright?" He asks me. "I hope she didn't really harm you or anything like that. My apologies, I'm sure she didn't mean it."

"Uh, no I'm fine. And no, I should be the one apologizing, I'm the one who provoked her after all. It was my fault, I'm sorry..." I feel my cheeks redden harder and I inwardly curse myself for allowing my emotions to rise up again.

"You're fine, don't sweat it," he smiles genuinely at me. "But how about we finish taking this break so that we can get back to training?"

"Right," I sit back down on the ground and he sits next to me, opening up a pack of fruit snacks.

"Want some?" He hands out the bag to me and I smile.

"Sure, thanks," I take a few from him and munch quietly.

About a few minutes later, we start discussing formations for battles, concluding that we'll have to try them out after the combat matches. He looks out the window and sighs. "I never expected it all to happen like this..."

He fiddles with his fingers before meeting my eyes. "The Grand Games once again, but this time I have a partner. The irony is strong."

"Yeah, believe me," I roll my eyes with a smile.

"But, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I wouldn't have partnered with anyone else," The side of his lips turn upward and break away from his gaze and smile to the ground.

"This is why I strongly believe that we actually have a chance at winning this thing," He looks back out to the window.

I look at him once more, seeing his eyes dazed over, musing over his thoughts, from where the words almost seem like they're falling out unknowingly. From the view I can see, his blue eyes are now even bluer, thanks to the sun's rays and his hair actually appears blonde rather than a really light brown. He's beautiful... Almost captivating.

"In any way, just ignore me," he chuckles. "We won't get anywhere if we're not working to get there, right?" He stands up and holds out his hand in front of me. "C'mon, let's go ahead and finish the rest of this workout thing."

I grab onto his hand and he hoists me up, except his grip lasts a little longer than it should. He releases my hand and pulls out a key. "Shall we?"

I groan aloud and he laughs loudly. "You really thought I was going to let you slide by this one?"

"I gotta admit, I didn't think you were that sly. Trying to coax me with your words and then, bam, right in my face."

"I'll at least make it fun, no wait," he pauses putting the key in the door and opens it. "I'll make it a challenge."

"Okay, okay, this is starting to get a little exciting," I smirk crossing my arms around my chest and walk into the weight room, Link following me behind.

"Okay, so where do we start?"

Another hour passes while we each rotate taking turns on each machine. Link beat me in the pound challenge and ended up benching 10 lbs more than me. However at the end, the both of us are sore from all the working out and lifting. We're just finishing up our squats when the intercom rings signaling the end of the first half of training. As of now, we have an hour for lunch and and hour to rest and stretch.

"Do you have a place in mind for lunch?" Link asks me gathering his things and wiping sweat off of his forehead.

"Well, I'm really craving a burger but that'll entirely defeat the whole purpose of us burning all those calories," I grin gathering my things as well.

"Yeah, you and carbs," we walk out of the room and he locks the door behind him. We continue walking toward the locker rooms to retrieve our wallets.

"However, we do need some protein," I reply opening my locker, placing my towel in the dirty hamper and my water bottles in the trash can.

"What about a grill?" Link grins. "They have all kinds of meats and stuff. I know this one place called Owen's Steakhouse. It's like a barbecued Salata restaurant."

"That doesn't sound too bad," I shut my locker, locking it back up. "Let's not waste anymore time and head over there so we can have enough time to eat.

As we make our way out of the building and into Link's car, I turn off airplane mode to see if anyone's tried to contact me in the past three hours. I have 2 new messages from Ike and 4 from Sheik and 1 from Lucina. I read Lucina's first.

 _'Hey blondie let me know how everything's rolling with Link. I hope it's gotten kinky yet of you know what I mean'_

I grin and roll my eyes at her silliness and move on to read Sheik's next.

 _'I swear I'm dumping Shadow today. I can't believe his unbelievable ass.'_

 _'Hurry up and get to Lunchtime because Palutena is still asleep and Lucina's with Robin and they're making me feel lonely ?'_

 _'I imagine the two of you are flirting right now now that y'all are partners lol'_

 _'Showering is gonna be a challenge I bet lmao! Tell me all the juicy details when u get the chance shadows back and he's horny brb'_

Ew, now there's an image in my head. Thanks a lot, Sheik.

I enter Link's car and finally read Ike's messages.

 _'Hey princess I miss you ? ﾟﾒﾖ_ _? I can't wait till you get home so I can attack that_ _little thing of yours ?'_

 _'By the way come by my place this evening I got a special_ _surprise for you ? ﾟﾒﾦ_ _I'm sure you'll love it'_

I can already picture Ike with a new sex toy that he probably already has duplicates of. Not really feeling in the stimulating mood, I ex out of the messages and put my phone away. It's kinda rude to be on my phone while I'm with someone too, so I might as well engage.

"So, whatsup Link?" I ask him sliding my phone into the cup holder. "What's shakin' in Link's world."

"I've got something that you might find a bit interesting," he comes to a stop light and turns down the radio a bit.

"Yeah? What is it?" I turn to face him and a smile forms it's way onto his lips.

"Well... You remember... A while ago, when we were together..."

I nod slowly, not really knowing where the conversations heading.

"Remember when I told you when I actually found out my genetic background from Hyrule? At the time, I couldn't really trace it back to anything, but I did a lot of digging, right? Turns out my mother... She's still alive..."

My eyes widen intensely and my mouth forms a large 'o'. Is he being serious?!

"Link, are you really fucking with me right now?"

"Nope, full truth." He turns and grins at my expression for a split second and then his eyes are back on the road.

"L-Link! That's literally amazing!" I nearly shout. That's great news! I know how hard Link's been trying to find some sort of purpose in his life... That stage everyone goes through every once in a while and he was so determined to find out his family history since he grew up as an orphan. At that time, Link and I would spend hours searching through textbooks to pinpoint exactly in what part of Hyrule he was born in, and from there, be able to track his village and meet people there who's known or heard of his family's surname. Apparently over that span of time, he did it. He found his mother.

"So?!" I excitedly urge him to continue.

"Wow, didn't expect you to be this excited," he laughs. "It turns out there was a small village hidden by the Hyrule Lake just a little southwest of the castle. I took a trip down there about some time ago and talked to some of the people. They gave me instructions on how to find the village because it isn't at all located in the map. I followed them and came across a small little cottage home where and old woman resided. Turns out that old woman was my grandma and she couldn't even recognize me when she saw me. The village however was demolished, completely deserted. The terrain, was nonetheless beautiful and almost enchanting. It made me want to stay there and be apart of my real home, you know? Then I met my mother, apparently, she had passed away but my grandmother worked some of her magic along with the Deku Tree and they revived her a little while before I left for the institution. Samus... She's beautiful. She has these really bright, gold eyes that almost equate to sunlight and her hair is long just a bright and beautiful as... yours. Evidently, she was once a princess of the abandoned land, but Ganondorf had completely wiped off everyone in the village. Seemingly, my grandma's power was strong enough to protect herself. I could've stayed there forever, Samus." He turns to look at me with a small smile. "I might as well stop there, I don't want to bore you."

"N-No! No Link, I'm not bored at all, in fact I really want to hear more," I blush a little. I sound like a little kid.

"Yeah? But we're here now, so I guess it'll have to wait." He chuckles and unbuckles his seat belt getting out of the car. I also grab my cell and wallet and open the car door, following behind Link entering the grill.

I look up at the menu on top of the little greeting podium. "Everything looks delicious..."

"Good afternoon!" The hostess greets us. "Are you willing to eat here or to go?"

Link and I exchange looks between each other then with the hostess. "We'll eat here."

"Great!" She hands the both of us our menus and leads us to a small booth in the corner of the large grill. The place is nicely decorated with a southern twist to it and moderately furnished. It also smells good. Like really good food. My stomach grumbles lowly in my belly and Link immediately looks to me and grins. "Well someone's hungry."

I blush and begin to skim over the menu. "I don't know what to choose, I don't even know how I don't know about this place. I'd come here all the time."

"Since you've never been here, why don't you have what I'm having? It's my personal favorite and it also includes the top chefs secret ingredients."

"Oh yeah?" I raise my eyebrows still looking across the menu. "What's it called?"

"The Lime-which Beef desert," he says with a huge smile.

I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Don't get too frightened, it's a sandwich that is composed of basil-green onion grilled barbecued beef shreds, avocado and honey mustard with ground flaxseed and chia seeds sauce, tomatoes, and lettuce. Also with a side of kale chips."

"Hmm..." I set down my menu and cross my arms with approval. "Okay, it better taste as good as it sounds."

"I promise you won't regret it," Within 8 minutes, the hostess is back with our meals.

I take one bite into the sandwich and... He was right, it was unbelievably delicious! It practically melts in my mouth.

"See I told you," Link also bites into his sandwich seeing my astonished face. Instantly, he stops in the middle of chewing his sandwich and looks directly at me.

"You got... A little piece of..." He points to my cheek and I quickly grab a sheet of napkin to wipe it.

I daintily dust over my right cheek and he shakes his head. "No, right there..."

I wipe again this time just above my lips and he continuously shakes his head. Without thinking twice, he leans over and grabs my napkin and places it over the corner of my lips, gently wiping off the piece of meat.

"There," he places the napkin down and continues eating.

"Thanks," I mutter with a smile. As we resume eating, Link continues on from where he left off with the story of how he met his mother. By the time we've finished our sandwiches, he clears his throat and stands up.

"If you would excuse me, I have to make a quick phone call," He removes his napkin and slides out of the booth quickly without waiting for a response. He didn't have to be so formal, what's up with that?

I shrug and dump the rest of his kale chips onto my plate and casually snack on them, deciding I should probably text my response back to everyone.

I tell Lucina things are going kinda smooth for the first day of training and that she should keep her panties on that there's no chance of anything of the "kinky" nature to occur between Link and I. Not that it would be totally bad or anything... If it just lasted like 2 minutes...

I ask Sheik how everything's going at her place and ask what Shadow has done to upset her. There really is no point in me asking because they've probably already kissed and made up a while ago. I also tell her that showering isn't going to be awkward unless I make it. Link seems like a chill guy when it comes to this type of stuff also, unlike Ike who'd make everything kind of about sex and embarrass me in front of all the other people who have lockers there as well-

Huh? Did I just...

I just-

I...

"Hey, I'm back!" Link comes back from around me takes his seat again. I slowly click the power button to turn off my screen and my eyes gaze up at Link. His brows furrow in confusion seeing my facial expression. "What's wrong, is everything alright?"

My eyes immediately betray me and my gaze shifts down to my phone in my hands. Snap out of it, Sam!

"No, no, everything's fine," I look to my left on the booth for my gloves and grab them. "I'm going to go to the bathroom to wash my hands." I get up avoiding eye contact with him and hurry straight in the direction of the big sign embedded with the words RESTROOM pointing to the left and right. I rush into the females room and set my gloves down on the counter and look at my reflection in the mirror.

I just compared Ike to Link.

What is that supposed to mean? I mean, obviously...Ike is my boyfriend... kinda...

I'm supposed to representing him wherever I go, and vice versa. But I didn't even say it out loud, it was all in my head.

What, now my brain is starting to find reasons to incline myself to Link?

"Snap out of it," I snap at myself shaking my head dramatically in the mirror. "Just don't think about it."

I place my hand under the automatic soap dispenser and turn on the water to wash my hands. Just don't think about it, I remind myself. Just don't think about it.

When I walk back out to meet Link, he is standing in front of the bar table, I'm assuming to pay. I hurriedly try to reach our booth but Link spots me and motions for me to come over. Questioningly, I walk over to him and he hands me my wallet. "Don't worry, I got you covered."

My eyebrows narrow in in-contentment and I cross my arms over my chest. "Link, you didn't have to do that." Link knows how much I hate people paying for things for me, so the fact that he went ahead and did it makes me a little upset.

"I'm sorry, I know how much you hate this," He nervously laughs. "But we're running a little late, we need to make it in time to stretch. Plus you were in the restroom so..."

I continue to glare at him while he turns to take the receipt from the man. He turns and looks at me with a bright smile. "Oh, come on, don't get too upset." He grabs my hand and leads me out the shop waving to the hostess on the way out. In the corner of my eye I see her cheeks redden intensely and her hand raise to send back friendly wave. I roll my eyes and continue to glare at the back of his head. Who does he think he is? He thinks that because he's now acquired the look he can just wave to females whenever he feels like it? Idiot...

What, you jealous? No! Why would I be jealous of him waving to another person, he's my partner after all...

A breeze swings through us when Link pushes open the door and snags me away from my thoughts. I feel his grip tighten as he continues to lead me to his car. I look down at our joined hands and a tingly sensation fills my stomach. Why does he hold my hand? I can get to the car by myself.

He releases my hand and I nearly have a heart attack. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out his keys to unlock his car. Oh. Damn, I need to relax.

We both enter his car and he ignites the engine not wasting another second to be on our way. He slightly turns up the radio and I decide that this is the perfect time to turn my feelings back off. I don't know what happened during our lunch but I began to get out of control and blushing and such. Now that he'd driving and obviously wants to listen to music, I can think about how I'm going to get my act together.

By the time we reach the Training grounds again, the parking lot is immensely crowded with people making their way into the building. Link quickly swerves into an open parking space and kills the engine, already out of the vehicle. I hurriedly remove my seat belt and exit, walking up to him. "What are we rushing for, Link? Just chill, there's going to be enough space in the room for us."

"No, there's a specific place I want us to sit and stretch," He grabs my hand again and continues walking at a fast pace. "So we have to get there before anyone else gets there." I raise my eyebrows, kind of shocked. I wonder where he wants to sit so bad.

We hurry inside, along with the other who are now hurrying as well. We manage to make it to the room as one of the second teams. Link walks around the large open wood space and I grab two yoga mats and a seat cushion for myself. I spot him all the way at the way corner of the gym next to two huge windows and a small piece of tall wall, sort of closing off the space in front of us. He waves at me to come over and I slowly walk over and hand him his mat.

"This is it," He grins at me and sets down his mat. I do the same whilst removing my gloves and my cellphone from my person.

"What's so special about sitting here?" I ask him also unteing my shoes.

"I honestly don't know why it makes me feel like this but, the trees are tall enough to where if you sit here its almost like you're sitting in them. Then behind you, there's that spectacular view of the sun and the city. It helps me relax a little easier."

Hearing him muse about the beauty of the scenery brings back nostalgic feelings. I untie my hair and take a look behind me to get a feel for it for myself. The sun is shining bright and high and before you can see the tallest building reflect the light, there's a vast open land of shiny, moist blades of grass. To the right of all the grass and where the trees begin, there's a magnificent Sakura tree that spreads around little cherry blossoms onto the field making it look that much more beautiful. I turn back to Link with a huge grin on my face.

"Hey, I have an idea..."

Link sets out his mat once more onto the green and finally removes his belongings off of his person. I set down our four water bottles along with all my items and then spread my mat over the little pink pedals polluting the floor beneath my feet. I set down my cushion as well and take my seat folding my legs criss-cross.

Link begins stretching out his arms. "This idea wasn't bad at all."

I smirk. "Now you were running around for no reason at all." I spread my legs across my mat and lean to my right, stretching my arms out to my toes and making sure that my stomach was touching my knee. "I was wondering why you were driving so fast, I was scared that you were upset or something."

"Nah," He smiles. "I don't really know but... taking that trip back to the village really helped me embrace nature a lot more. It makes me do so even more after finding out that my grandma had used all of her powers to turn that once battered land into something really magical.

"I guess it was a good idea for you to go back, I hope you also have stopped littering too." I raise an eyebrow at him pointedly and he chuckles.

"Yeah, I stopped doing that a while ago," He moves on to stretch his legs as well. "Maybe you can come one day and see for yourself."

My eyes immediately travel up to his. "W-what? Really?"

"Yeah, why not?" He grins widely and I return a smile. Seeing his eyes glisten from the opposite direction of the sunlight makes his little blue orbs appear bluer than normal and I find myself not able to look away.

Link sits up and so do I and he faces me. "Samus..." His eyes don't leave mine and neither do I to his. My eyes slowly travel down from his eyes to his nose then abruptly stop at his lips. Images of my previous dream flash within my brain quickly and my eyes escape back into his. We sit like that, just staring at each other, waiting for Link's next words for the next minute or so.

"You are very beautiful," He mutters. I immediately catch my breath, totally caught off guard. He's really doing this on purpose. I feel my cheeks redden dramatically.

"Uh... um, Sorry," He breaks away from my gaze and nervously runs his hand through his hair. "I-I mean't..." He stops again.

"I... I've been meaning to tell you... You've probably heard from someone already," He starts again and now I become curious. "I'll be leaving to Hyrule after the Grand Games... Permanently."

My face crumbles a bit. My eyes drift away from his and takes notice in the trees next to us. Even though I've already known, the fact that he's directly telling me now makes it a lot more difficult to listen thoroughly. "I've heard..."

"Yeah..." He looks down, instantly infatuated with the grass blades and his fingers begin to fiddle with them. "Zelda and I are... We're getting married."

A bitter taste fills my mouth, it almost makes me want to spit. I nod slightly. "You don't seem too excited about that."

He looks up at me instantaneously and my eyes remain planted on the trees' bark. I feel his eyes remain on me for another 3 minutes without the both of us saying anything.

"I'm sorry," Link practically whispers. The sudden sound of his voice causes my gaze to shift to him.

"What?" I ask.

"I'm sorry, Samus," He finally makes direct eye contact with me, his eyes full of determination, sadness and guilt all in one. "I... I messed up... Big time. I never should've doubted you, and what we had... I'm the one who ruined everything for you, and now you can barely find yourself in a stable situation with anyone and it's all my fault." My eyes widen at the intensity of his words and his tone. He really means it. But how does he know about my situation with Ike...?

"I-it was just too good to be true, you know, so I freaked out. Severely. And I severed what trust you could've kept for me, maybe for anyone. You didn't deserve any of that, you had no part in my mess that I've created. I just... I wish all the time that I can just go back and fix it all-"

"Link, it's okay," I reach my hand out as if to stop him from going any further. "It's totally fine, okay?" I give him a small smile for reassurance. "I understand what you're saying, for once." I smirk and he gives a small smile as well. "But it's in the past now, so there's nothing we can do about it, Link. Let's just look at the whole thing like a learning experience, right? Plus, didn't you say you're getting married? You've got a whole new future ahead of you for you to be stuck in the past."

"Samus, I miss you," he flat out says, and it's almost as if he didn't even hear me speaking. Or, he just said it without thinking. "I-I... I miss you a lot, and sometimes... I can't help but think about you..."

"Link..." I whisper.

"And at times I just can't stop thinking about you, and-"

"Link, stop," I release my gaze from his and blush angrily for making him halt. But it's what has to be done. "You have to let it go. Things are starting to change, just..." I take a deep breath to keep myself from getting emotional and focus my eyes on the ground. "Just try and forget about me... Like that... For Zelda."

We're both silent for a good 5 minutes and I refuse to look at him. Great, now how are we supposed to train or do anything now that we're like this? Although this was much needed, to put to rest some of the lingering emotions I harbored, it's most definitely not going to help us be successful if we openly allow ourselves to be vulnerable to emotions.

Link finally clears his throat and My gaze raises to his. He smiles sweetly at me. "Thank you."

I raise an eyebrow and slightly cock my head to the side. "For what?"

"For this," he replies. "For bringing me outside to this beautiful scenery and for being the best teammate I could ever ask for."

I smile genuinely and giggle a little. I flip my hair dramatically. "Well, what did you expect?" The both of us erupt in laughter and I already feel the mood slightly rise to higher spirits. We continue stretching talking about things other than the romantic nature. I guess we now finally feel at ease.


End file.
